Love like a movie.

Being a 7th grade small group leader, there is one thing on most of my girls minds: boys. 

Twice this week I have sat down with older girls and the conversation always gets back to one thing: I just wanna be in love.

Anytime I have a conversation about this topic it usually leads to the same thing.... a love like the movies.

Don't get me wrong, I love a good chick flick, and I am famous for always wanting to see the the new Nicholas Sparks movie, but the more and more these conversations kept happening the more and more I kept asking myself, "why do we want what's in the movie?"

The Avett Brothers said it perfectly: So you want to be in love like the movies? But in the movies they're not in love at all. And with a twinkle in their eyes, they're just saying their lines. So we can't be in love like the movies. Now in the movies they make it look so perfect. And in the background they're always playing the right song. And in the ending there's always a resolution. But real life is more than just two hours long.

girls: 

wake up call. 

-a guy isn't gonna walk across the United States because he found your picture in Iraq and thinks you are his guardian angel. [the lucky one]

I'm gonna step on some peoples toes here with this one, but oh well. It kills me when I see tweets about how girls want this "love like a movie," but then are "talking" to a guy who won't even hold the door open for her. You want a guy to love you the way Jack loves Rose in the titanic, then talk to a guy that knows how to respect you enough to even open the door to a restaurant. 

Love is so much more than someone writing letters to you for 365 days [the notebook], kissing you in the rain [dear john], or running off the football field out into the bleachers to find you [a Cinderella story].

Yeah all those things are great and what every girl dreams of, but when I think about falling in love, and finding my husband, I can say with everything in me.... I don't want a love like in the movies.

I don't want someone to love me for the way I look, for the way I dress, for what size jeans I wear, or for how I act. I want someone to love me for the way I love Jesus. 

I don't wanna stay up late having him tell me how perfect I am so I feel good about myself. I wanna stay up late and have him constantly reminding me who Christ says I am. But I also wanna be strong enough in my faith that I know who Jesus says I am, and I allow him to love every part of me. When you get to that point then you open up the door for someone else to step in and love you. 

I don't wanna talk for hours on the phone about nothing, I wanna talk for hours on the phone about how absolutely blown away we both are at what Jesus in doing in our lives.

Because I know if someone is in love with you because of the way you love Jesus, your love for each other will surpass anything you could see in a movie, and I know when someone falls in love for your heart they absolutely adore every other part of you. 

So girls, next time you fantasize over the latest chick flick coming out stop and ask yourself what you really want your love story to be.

Then you come to a point where you know what you want in a man, and what Jesus has been doing in me is showing me everything I want my husband to be to me: an encourager, a listener, a safe place.... I have to be right back to him.

So tonight instead of praying: Jesus bring me my husband. How about praying Jesus turns you into the woman your husband wants/needs you to be for him. 

I would trade inside jokes over 365 letters any day. Why? cause it's unique. 

When you allow Jesus to write your love story, everything about it is unique, and way better than anything you see in the movies.

[Proverbs 31:10] 

An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels.

That is what you want. Someone to say you are far more precious than jewels. 

So Jesus, don't give us a love like in the movies. Give us someone who is in love with the way we love you.