He knows how to take care of my heart...

*Disclaimer! This post is being written for ladies. Guys, if you care to listen in thats fine. But NO information disclosed herein may be used against any female in your life! Amen. 

"He knows how to take care of my heart." These words came from a very dear friend of mine one day shortly after she agreed (very readily I believe) to marry a guy who, just a few short years earlier, she had declared she would NEVER date, much less marry. She went on to tell me how he had gone to her dad and asked for advice on how to love her. She is close to her dad and this guy needed all the help he could get to woo her. He worked hard to win her heart. He learned about her, took time to ask, and time to listen to the answer. He won her, slowly and completely. How many of you ladies can honestly tell me thats not what you want out of life? Zero. That is the exact number. If your alive and breathing and female, you want that. I want that. We all want that. But it doesn't seem to be the reality in most cases does it? A lot of married women are 'content' at best. Many are silently hurting and still more are not even bothering to be silent about it. Maybe, just maybe, that is because we expect this kind of heart caring to come from the wrong source? 

Let me go back to my friend for a moment. I'm not going to idealize her. She is not perfect by any means. But she has this incredible quality that I admire greatly. She doesn't think its anything special, and maybe she is right. The truth is that its something we all need in our lives. My friend knows Jesus. She knew Jesus long before the would-be-love-of-her-life began pursuing her. She knew the heart of Jesus Christ in an intimate way. She allowed Him to woo her, to fill her, to overflow her life and pool around her. Her world was, is, a place where people congregate for refreshment and peace. She exudes life and grace because she is filled with Life and Grace. She married a wonderful guy. A truly wonderful guy. But he's also a normal human. He knows the tremendous gift that he has in this girl and he knows she is worth pursuing with all his heart. His love for her, and his care of her heart, is largely due to who she is, not who he is. So, here is my proposition. Perhaps having that kind of love in our lives is actually entirely dependent on our relationship with Jesus Christ and not on 'finding Mr. Right'? I think yes. 

A few months ago I did a crazy thing. I started praying for something. It started as a suggestion from a friend which I threw off as silly and irrational. But it kept niggling at the back of my mind. God kept saying "Just ask Me" and I kept saying "Are You crazy? I'm NOT asking You for that!" But God is more stubborn than me and eventually I gave in. He has not granted my request, and I am very grateful for that, but we have had a TREMENDOUS ride the last few months!! Wow! The scenery has been beautiful, my heart has broken a few times, my world has turned upside down, the life plan I so carefully constructed got shattered, He led me through dealing with old deep ragged wounds, and I learned that truly, He knows how to take care of my heart. My very grudging willingness to open my heart to Him in that new way completely changed my world... Forever. The most recent installment on this trek to knowing Him better came when my two best friends started dating... Each other. I was delighted! Well, I wanted to be. The unselfish side of me was/is, completely thrilled with this new arrangement! The selfish side? Well, she really misses them. I went from many many texts from both of them every day to often not hearing from them at all. When the two people you communicate with most in the world start communicating with each other and not with you, it leaves a tremendous vacuum. But guess what? He knows how to take care of my heart!!! He, Him, Life, Grace, Comfort, Wind, Rain, Love, comes and fills my life in ways I never knew my friends were filling. Suddenly, since my phone is so quiet, I engage with the people around me a whole lot more. I'v made new friendships that I value very highly and some of my old friendships have deepened. I'v learned about myself, and more importantly about God. Don't get me wrong, I still love my best friends and they still love me. I know that in the future this is going to be a great deal of fun, but for now, its a daily adjustment to being needed a lot less by them and to needing other people more than I do them. 

God does lonely. He is there in the lonely. His hands are gentle and His heart is huge. I have been so incredibly AmAzEd at what He has done to show me his caring. I'v learned to ask Him to teach me how He loves me. I know that I need Him to show me the ways that He cares because honestly I'm not good at picking up on it on my own. He gently and faithfully does that. He'l do that for you too. He WANTS to do that for you!! His finger prints are all over your life. His blood was spilt to woo you. Honey, there are some really sweet men out there, but there is no man out there who is going to do that. And there is no man out there who is going to KNOW all the right ways to love us and care for our hearts. And quite honestly, there is no man out there who has the capacity to completely fill all we want him to UNLESS we first allow Jesus Christ to take care of our hearts. 

I don't always feel Him. I don't always remember to run to Him when I'm lonely or sad or scared. I forget sometimes and I cry and stress out and eat chocolate. Eventually He does always get my attention but sometimes He has to go to some extreme measures. But I'v learned this fact over the last several months. Even when I forget it, even when I don't feel it, even when my whole world is just rotten bad and awful, HE KNOWS HOW TO TAKE CARE OF MY HEART!!! I just have to learn to let Him.