The City of Angels

Now that it is Friday, I'll post about last weekend =) Last weekend, I went out to L.A. to help my best friend Sarah with wedding planning details. Besides the awful mess of trying to get out there Thursday night when the plane had mechanical problems just as we were about to take off, forcing us to rearrange flights and leave Friday, it was a very good trip (and, in truth, that might have actually made it an even better trip since it meant no mechanical problems after we took off!).

It was a very productive weekend; we found her wedding dress, picked out bridesmaid dresses, picked out flowers and colors, went to food tastings for the lunch, and picked out invitations. Oh, and I finally got to meet her fiance! It was weird considering I went through all of her previous relationships with her since we were always together through college, and I knew each guy very well. And now she's been dating this guy for a year, she's getting ready to meet The One, and although I've heard so much about him, I hadn't even met the guy yet! Even my family got the opportunity to meet him a year ago when he came with Sarah out to Colorado... Nevertheless, I know he's a fantastic guy, and I fully trust Sarah's judgment.

Their relationship in one weekend actually became a huge example to me. It's funny because Sarah has always been an example to me, she has always been one step ahead of me, and I very strongly look up to her as a Christian example, even if she's learning just as much as I am. I'm really impressed with the relationship she has with Richard, how God-centered it is, and how He is what they both strive for, and that is what has brought them together. I asked Richard why he fell for her, and his answer was that she has such an inviting beauty, that she opens herself up in the right ways and calls him to be a great man of God.

She was telling me about their premarital counseling and whatnot, and she told me about one of their struggles that she learned a lot from. She's a very strong woman needless to say. She has no quams about taking charge in things, especially if she feels like something needs to change. The example she presented me was the fact that they were both going to a church that after a while they were becoming very unsatisfied with. They made a commitment to their pastor that they would stay and support it while he was on a two month mission trip because he had been holding things together and building it up, and he had a feeling that it would fall if people began abandoning it while he was gone. After about a month, Sarah was tired of it and wanted to find another church. She kept pushing Richard to begin looking, but Richard needed time to think it through. She said that one Sunday morning at church, she gave Richard an ultimatum, and wrote down on a piece of paper that the following weekend, she was going to a different church, and he could choose to stay or go with her. She and Richard talked about this later, and they talked to their pastor and another close friend, and what came out of it was that in the relationship, the man is supposed to be the leader. Yes, the woman has a great say in the matter, but it is ultimately the man's decision. The woman, in submission to the man, follows his lead, just as the Bible tells us. Richard needed time to think things through and make the best decision he could, and Sarah needed to give him that time and allow him to lead her. I know I'm not explaining this in the depth that they told me the story, and there was a lot more discussion, but I was really struck by how here and in other instances over the weekend, they really strived to bring everything back to God and what His word says. I learned an amazing amount from them just in a couple of days. It makes me long for a relationship like that, but it also showed me that it is very real, that relationships like that aren't lost nowadays, and that I really need to remember patience better if I'm to let God lead me to what He has planned for me. And to focus only on Him and stop worrying about what people think around me.

I heard the best quote a while ago, it seems very fitting for my random Sarah and Richard relationship rant, and a good way to end this post:

"A woman's heart should be so lost in God that a man needs to seek Him in order to find her."