My Sister, My Bride

 Song of Solomon 4:9-12

Song of Solomon 5:1-2

I’m currently reading a book 

my sweet friend Lacey gave me last summer,

but I haven’t got around to it until now.

It’s so good!

It has been opening my eyes 

to all the misconceptions i have had about love.

In “My Sister, My Bride” chapter

he talks about how he had been praying

for his wife for years and so when he met the

first girl he was interested in 

he didn’t treat her like his "sister" first 

but just simply his "bride".

Thinking of all the ways she would be a great addition to his life and forgetting to “appreciate her as his sister in Christ”.

“Yes, there is a reason for the order of things. 

Men, before you start thinking “bride” 

you should be thinking “sister”.

So many people these days

 (and, unfortunately, including myself)

skip the “sister” stage and jump right to the “bride” stage.

We forget to get to know the woman 

and never learn to love her as a woman, as an individual.

We can see we fail to see who she is, 

where her walk with God has gone, 

and where it will take her.”

(Love Notes)

“First, this is vital because you will grow to appreciate her more. Second, it is vital because it will keep you from defrauding her.”

I think this is so important to our young adults 

who are dating with marriage in mind.

For girls to understand how they should be treated and men to understand how they should treat women. 

And even for our high school youth back home.

When approach a relationship with a “sister” mindset respect often follows and I think we have lost a bit of this in our society.

We start to look at each other as objects instead of sons and daughters of the King.

When we are in Gods family we become royalty,

And royalty honors others.

Not because that person deserves it all the time, but because we know that we deserve it.

This past week I had the opportunity to preach on honor.

And I think its so sweet how this ties in with,

“My Sister, My Bride”.

Grant this is a chapter for men but I think its so good and I know that I want to raise sons one day that honor girls as their sisters!

Here is another section from the chapter

 that really stuck out to me,

“We need to be the kind of men who will treat the women around us like full flesh-and-blood sisters.

We need to be men who honor women at all costs and treat them with tenderness and grace.”

I think as a woman I would absolutely love to live in a time when this was taught to young men.

Where guys stood in the gap for girls cause that’s how God created them to be.

Its crazy how when a guy holds the door for a girl or even lets her go first we are almost stunned.

Its sad that this has been removed from our society, 

or at least the one I live in.

Im so blessed to have an amazing love in my life 

that treats me the way that God would have him treat me

 and thus allowing us to be an example of what happens when you do this dating thing Gods way!!!

I’m hoping that through our marriage, Jesse and I, will be able to raise boys and teach them to respect women and girls and that through our ministry with young boys and girls we will be able to at least turn around

some on of these culture shifts in our community.

I want to credit Ryan Dalgliesh

 for this blog because its through his book

that I’m learning more about God’s love.