Challenge Day #3

#3 My First Love...

The first thing that came to my mind when considering my first love, is my love for Jesse. He was my first boyfriend that I honestly could see myself marrying. We were in love. When we broke up, I knew that God told me that Jesse was the one I was supposed to marry. I've told our love story before, so I won't go into it all again, but through a lot of tears and a lot of prayers, God brought Jesse back to me. However, Jesse never was and never will be my first love. Being my FIRST love has nothing to do with which love came first, but rather which love takes precedence over the others. I love my family. My husband is my other half, and I believe we make each other better people. I adore my son. He means the world to me. It brings tears to my eyes to describe how proud of him I am. My mom and my brother are two of my favorite people in the world. I love my friends. They love me unconditionally and lift me up repeatedly. I love french fries with all their warm and salty glory. I love tv shows, and art, and all kinds of crafts. But none of that means anything without my love for God. 

The depth of my relationship with God has ebbed and flowed over the years, but never ceased. The number of Bible studies I attend a week have varied from 1 a week to multiple studies a day. I've spent hours in prayer each day and gone weeks without even speaking directly to God. But, at the heart of it all, everything I do and say and surround myself in is filtered through my faith in my Lord. I choose to live the lifestyle I do because I want to bring honor to Him in obedience and love. 

Throughout my (nearly) 26 years of life, I've re-evaluated my belief in God several times. I wanted to make sure that I genuinely believed in Him and His Word because I saw proof of it all around me and experienced it first-hand rather than because I have been told to believe it by my parents, teachers, and pastor. But the beauty of creation, the intricacy of our lives woven together, the timelessness of the Gospel, and countless stories of unexplained phenomena that can only be described as the hand of God, scream too loudly to me to ignore the existence of God. 

He is my first love. And if you don't know Him yet, I'd be glad to introduce you... :-)