Enchanted by 'Enchanted'

Last night we went and saw 'Enchanted', the lastest Disney flick. It was lots of fun, the heroine was so delightfully innocent, and the prince... Well the prince he did look good with puffy sleeves, but there wasn't much between his ears, if you catch my drift!! :) Susan Sarandon played an amazing Evil Step Mother. And her cronie was similarly wonderful.

I loved the following points that the movie made:

1. Real love is romantic and fairytale-like
   
   AND
   


2. Real love accepts the imperfection of the other person, and is rational about love

It's really easy to get caught up in one of two camps. The overly-romantic-hopelessly-naive camp which says as long as you love each other nothing else matters, that love will find a way, but is sketchy on details of HOW. Or the love-hurts-best-not-to-risk-it-all-based-on-feelings camp, these people have been hurt, and quite justifiably do not want to risk their hearts, when their heads tell them it's going to head in pain.

I think the balance position is right, we need to love with our hearts AND minds. It would be stupid (but how often do we do this) to run into a relationship with someone who we can quite plainly see is incompatible with us, or does not have the maturity to be in a relationship, or is not a Christian, or has a life controlling habit, or has completely different aims in life etc etc. So there should be a level where we check off the mental list of what we are/are not looking for in a life partner BEFORE letting our hearts run away with us.

My understanding is that God doesn't always reveal a specific person to whom He wishes us to marry. However, to my thinking if we ask Him to lead us in this, are diligent about following what He says in His word about choosing partners, and then He does say "Yes" about a particular person, that's as safe as you can get. As He is the only one who knows you perfectly and the other person perfectly, He is the only one who can say definitively whether you are compatible, sufficiently mature to be in a relationship, of similar grounding in the faith, etc etc. Probably worth testing what you are hearing though, just in case the flesh is speaking louder than His Spirit! :) (e.g. If you are rationalising about something, that isn't God)

If you do get the "Yes" from God, and it's confirmed by people who are mature in the faith and you respect, I reckon enjoy being in love for all it's worth!!! Be the hopeless romantic. Be the princess, and he the prince. Don't hold back in fear, in faith trust God's choice, and choose to love that person with all you've got. Not just in mushy feelings, but make the choices that say you love them too.

God knows best who is "made for us", so when He brings "Eve" to "Adam", say, "Woah! S/he's the one for me!" To hold back in fear, would be like if Adam had instead said, "meh, she's kinda pretty, but I think I like the elephant better".

God bless,
Bec