Love is a bed of roses...

…with petals, and leaves and yes!  Even thorns.

I know that I may occasionally have some readers who worry about my fantasizing over love and romance and marriage – ‘a little too much’.

I know that I post about romantic things – ‘a lot’.

And I know that I sometimes go ‘overboard’ with it.

I recently read on a website that someone thought that ‘Miss Raquel needs to get a boyfriend so she’ll see that love isn’t all about being picked up and twirled…about kissing…and dancing in the rain’.

The first thing I did when I read that was laugh. :)

The second, was this:

While I do believe that love is all those things,

I believe love is painful too.

Love may be a bed of roses.  But roses come with thorns.

I remember once hearing a quote (it might’ve been in a movie) that said something along these lines:

‘You have never felt pain, until you have felt love’.

(Come to think of it…I think that’s from ‘Jane Eyre’ – correct me if I’m wrong!)

When I first heard that I was like ‘Oh wow’.

So no, I’m not married.  No, I have never fallen in love.  No, I have never had a guy pick me up and twirl me.  No, I have never danced with a guy in the rain.

But while I do believe that love is all those things,

I believe love is painful too.

As a romanticist, I tend to observe couples in my life…perhaps more frequently than other people do. :)  I like to watch a husband and wife – how they interact with each other, how they show affection towards one another in public, etc.  Little things that they do to/for each other always make me smile. 

The other day, I was an extra/dancer in a movie, and one of the leading ladies stood in front of a full-length mirror and was taking a picture of herself with her iPhone.  Someone stopped and asked her what she was doing and she said, ‘Oh, my husband isn’t here, but he wanted to see what I’m wearing, so I’m sending him a picture’.  How cute is that?  (Okay, some of you are going ‘That’s…really neat’ :P)  But for me, that showed me that her husband cared enough about her that – even though he wasn’t there, he still wanted to see her, to hear from her, to know what she was wearing. (so cute;)

BUT…

I have also observed couples with struggles.  Tempers may start, voices are raised, arguments end in abrupt silence.  I don’t believe that there is one marriage on earth that the husband and wife have not, at least once disagreed on something. 

Love may be a bed of roses, but roses come with thorns.

I know that just because two people love each other, it doesn’t mean that they will never fight.

I know that just because two people love each other, it doesn’t mean that they will never suffer hardships.

I know that just because two people love each other, it doesn’t mean that they will never feel at the end of their ropes.

BUT…

I do know one thing.

When two people love the LORD…

maintain their fellowship with HIM while dating/courting…

focus on HIM first in their marriage…

and desire only to please HIM with their lives…

The thorns are fewer and far in between.

Friends, I am a hopeful romantic.

I hope that one day the LORD will bring a man into my life whom He will make very clear to me that he is the right one.

I hope that when we have our first kiss, that I’ll feel tingles all the way down to my toes.

 I hope that on our wedding day, my gallant Prince will pick me up and twirl me in our first dance.

I hope that one day, when we’re married and it starts to rain, that my hubby will grab me by the hand and we’ll run outside together and dance under the falling raindrops.

But above all, I pray that my man and I will always remember the One who brought us together.

The One who created romance.

The One who created roses.

And the One who created love.

Because without Him, we wouldn’t be alive.  Marriage wouldn’t be a part of this world.  And most importantly, there wouldn’t be a healing from the thorns. 

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*Music Video Monday*

I know this isn't exactly a music video, but...this song really applies to this post :)

(By the way, did I tell you I'm gonna be seeing Brandon in concert in December?? ;)  So excited!)