Blog@GraceJunction

Its just too hard for me to conceal the giggles and smiles, when I look back at all those teenage and single years, when you are the most curious to know everything about Love, Relationships, Sex, Marriage etc.. Those who have married and are enjoying a deep relationship, I am sure will share these giggles however those who are still in their teens or are single will have their curious eyes brighten up…

We often don’t get it right, that thing called love – and as someone who has been through this route in life, I can tell you that it’s not a pretty sight to be crying your eyes out while being left alone, confused, hurt and bleeding with tissues and napkins mixed in mucous and salty tears.

Well here are some thoughts that I wish I knew about love when I was in my teens and single years.

I wish I knew how to guard my heart by accepting the truth of God’s love. It is the only love that is faithful, pure and good till the end. Had I fully grasped the concept back when I was 12, I would have made wiser choices in my teen years.

I wish I knew when I was 13 not to be in such a hurry to grow up to become a man. I wish I could cherish each day and enjoy the innocence of childhood, make more friends, smile and laugh a lot more. I wish I could rather enjoy uncompromised perspective of what love is.

At age 15, I wish I knew that falling in love and having girlfriends isn’t the only sign of growing up. I remember all the really cool guys around me had a girlfriend and many of the girls claimed to be ‘in love’, and as a young Christian boy (you get the picture), almost surrounded by many who were very insecure about not being in a relationship.

But I wish I’d known then not to take it too seriously, because the great thing about love is it’s not based on how popular, cool or handsome you are. Love is worth waiting for. I wish I had continued to enjoy the innocence in friendships, not look at every approach from someone of the opposite sex as an interest in me or look at relationships only in that perspective.

At age 18, I wish I knew that having moustaches, beard and bulging muscles aren’t the only pre-requisites to finding love.

I wish I knew that love was more than just a feeling you feel you have never felt before. I wish I knew it was something you find in God, the one who invented love, who’s very being is love and have HIM for yourself before you looked for a ‘relationship’.

And as I kept growing,

I wish I had known that love is not something that happens overnight, it’s not something that we accidentally fall in to with all the right smelling deo’s and styles, instead we have to work at it, and learn how to love.

I wish I had known that we need different types of love in our lives from family, friends and from God and although the idea of a romantic relationship might seem exciting however it will not fully fill your need to be loved, because only God can do that.

I wish I had known that if we want to be the best lover possible we need to spend time with the one who invented love – God! I wish I had known that relationship with anyone is about giving as much as receiving, so if we go into a relationship to get our needs met then it is destined to have problems.

I wish I had known that any relationship is trying someone out for marriage, so if you are not ready to think about marriage then it probably means you are not ready for a romantic relationship.

I wish I had known that if we don’t love ourselves we will try to get our identity from another person and expect them to fill the voids in our life, but of course they can’t, only God can satisfy our craving for identity and intimacy.

I wish I had known that sometimes in a relationship people will say someone is their ‘other half’ but to be in a relationship that is going to work you need to be a ‘whole’ person, secure in who you are, in your identity as a child of God before even thinking about entering into romance.

I wish I had known that to receive love you must first learn to love unselfishly, without expectations of being loved in return. I wish I had known that if we want to experience the fullness of love, to understand it and to be the best lover ever, we need to spend time with the one who created love because He will give us the Love we desire.

I am glad I’d come to know that God’s love gives me my value. The knowledge that Jesus died for me shows me how much I’m worth and teaches me what love really is.

Knowing Jesus at a very early age totally reshaped my view of love. The way 1 Corinthians 13, describes it in the Bible is not as a bunch of feelings but as a series of perpetual self-sacrificing choices and overflowing actions.

I am glad I realized that I should love my partner with the same heart as Jesus – loving me with His life and not just his words or feelings. I’m so glad I now know that loving someone means giving your life to one another, not just feeling ‘butterflies’ in your stomach!

Tags: Boyfriends, Confess, Confessions, Counselling, Dating, family, Girlfriends, God, Heartaches, Heartbreaks, Hurt, Intimate, Love, Marriage, Relationships, Romance, Romantic, sex, teens, Youths

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 27th, 2008 at 12:09 am and is filed under Articles, Blesson, Pre-marital sex, Purpose of Life, Relationships, Spiritual, Trends, Troubles & Problems, Youth Issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.