I had forgotten.................

OK, I read this today and yes, I had forgotten that I had learned this. I repented. I realized it is so easy to go back into habits that we have formed over the years. Back into what is comfortable, even though it brings us pain. I don't want to be there. I am so thankful we serve a God who loves us enough to remind us of the things that we have learned and then forgotten. Because He wants to help us, He wants us to be blessed in every area of our lives, especially in relationship with others. Here on this earth we only have each other. It's hard enough as it is without our relationships being strained and less than what God intends for them to be. So girls, if you have not read Captivating, do yourself a favor and read it. If you have, re-read it like I am, so you can fully become the Captivating Woman God has created you to be and thus be your True Self. I pray this reminder helps you as it has helped me. Jesus, I thank you for loving me.
"Awkward Love"
Honest communication in love is the only way to live and grow in friendships. There are ebbs and flows. There may be real hurt and disappointment. But with the grace of God firmly holding us, it is possible to nurture and sustain deep friendships. We are designed to live in relationship and share in the lives of other women. We need one another. God knows that. We have only to ask and surrender, to wait, to hope, and, in faith, to love. We must also repent.

For a woman to enjoy relationship, she must repent of her need to control and her insistence that people fill her. Fallen Eve demands that people “come through” for her. Redeemed Eve is being met in the depths of her soul by Christ and is free to offer to others, free to desire, and willing to be disappointed. Fallen Eve has been wounded by others and withdraws in order to protect herself from further harm. Redeemed Eve knows that she has something of value to offer; that she is made for relationship. Therefore, being safe and secure in her relationship with her Lord, she can risk being vulnerable with others and offer her true self.

To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket—safe, dark, motionless, airless—it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable . . . The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers of love is Hell. (C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves)
(Captivating by John Eldredge, 181–82)