A Knight in Shining Armor

When my husband, Darrel, and I first got engaged (after 8 long years of on-again-off-again dating), I remember coming home to my little duplex and finding it absolutely spotless! Of course I had not left it that way when I went to work. Just a few minutes later, here came Darrel just as pleased as he could be with himself - he had spent the afternoon cleaning up my terribly messy apartment! He was so sure that I would shower him with kisses and lavish him with praise. How shocked he was when I turned around and stomped out the door, red-faced and fuming!! He came after me, of course, asking me what was wrong, what had he done wrong, why was I so mad. Funny thing about those people who do not know how to love yet; when confronted with an act of love, they freak out! I was so independent and had shut myself off to everyone and everything around me that this whole scenario seemed like a threat instead of a treat. I boldly turned around and got in Darrel's face and yelled, "I don't need some knight in shining armor riding in and messing around in my life, hoping to be the hero!" Wow...harsh...zing!

What he was saying through his act of kindness and servanthood was that he loved me and knew that I had to work a lot, and that he thought this would be a blessing - one less thing I would have to worry about. Those messages trickled down through a distorted view of love and shouted out to me, "You're a failure!" "You can't do anything right!" "You're incapable and unable to take care of even the smallest task!" A huge cavern of difference between the two, huh? How many times do we hear the message of God's love in our lives only to have it trickle down and be filtered through a distorted view. We see God as harsh like the man did in the parable of the talents. We think that He's really saying He's disappointed in us. We turn that critical voice on others because of our insecurity. The enemy of our souls has tricked millions of people down through the ages with this same device. But it doesn't have to be that way - Scripture says we can wash our minds with the water of His Word. We can boot out those old ways of thinking and replace them with God's way of thinking! Whatever has happened to you in the past, let God have it and throw it into the sea of forgetfullness. Don't let the events of yesterday determine who you are today and who you will be tomorrow - or how you view our heavenly Father.

Well, I finally did calm down after a while, and that day was the beginning of a journey for me that would lead down the road of grace and mercy. I began to see, through the patient and loving instruction of my incredible best friend, that not only could I let others love me, but I could let God love me, too! That's when the most remarkable thing happened...I found out I could love right back!