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Ahhh….romance.
What springs to mind when you hear that word?
Roses? Candlelight
dinners, steamy stories, touching movies?
Wedding dresses? Diamonds? Chocolates?
“Romance” is one of
those things that we love to love! During
the Black Hills Women’s Retreat, hosted by Countryside Community Church
in Spearfish, South Dakota, and held October 24-25, 2003 at the Spearfish
Holiday Inn, ladies from all over our region gathered with guest speaker
and author Debra White Smith to explore “Romance and the Heart of a
Woman.”
Debra
White Smith has written numerous books including Romancing Your Husband, 101 Ways to Romance Your Marriage, Friends for
Keeps, and the popular Seven
Sisters fiction series. Starting
in Session #1,
Romancing the Lord,
Mrs. Smith set the tone for our retreat by establishing firm
Biblical footing for her message in Psalm 103:1-5, Psalm 46:4 and Philippians
4:6, pointing out that
romancing our God means spending time with Him in prayer with petition,
praise, and silence before Him.
She
drew a compelling illustration from the lives of eagles in that there are
periods where these majestic birds find themselves on the ground far below
their usual circumstances, moping in
solitude. Inevitably,
their talons crack and bleed, their beaks calcify, they begin to
pull out their feathers, and
lose their strength. Some
give up and die. Yet,
simultaneously, the stronger
eagles still soaring above will drop pieces of meat to their waning
comrades. Then, the weaker
ones must decide to accept the nourishment, regain their resolve, return
to the rock where they were hatched, and be renewed.
That foundational rock allows the eagle’s feet to heal,
calcification to be scraped away and feathers to grow.
Mrs. Smith compared the eagle’s cycle
to our own as we
encounter blessing, then endure purging,
submit ourselves to repentance and discover renewed blessing as we
choose to rise up on the Rock of our salvation.
She called it a kind of “Holy De-tox” for Christians.
Session #2 examined a Biblical
perspective for Romancing Yourself.
Returning to Psalm 103:1-5, Mrs.
Smith urged us to meditate upon God’s forgiveness, healing, redemption,
loving-kindness, mercy, and His desire to satisfy us and renew us.
She challenged us to allow God to begin reversing every erroneous
thought we have come to believe as truth and replace it with the true
image of God presented in Psalm 103.
Session
#3, Romancing
Your Friendships, addressed
the need for Biblical resolutions when conflict occurs between Christians,
as it did in Acts 15: 36-41, when a sharp disagreement arose between the
brothers. Powered
with the insights provided in Hebrews 12:14-15, we are to strive for
peace, and to be slow to anger
as in James 1:19-20. Conflict
resolution, from a Biblical perspective, requires us to do everything in
our power to repair, rebuild, and see the other person’s side.
Once that is done, we must remember the admonition of Matthew
5:43-44 to love our enemies and remain available for gentle
reconciliation.
The
final session, Romancing Your
Husband, placed a profound emphasis on Matthew 7:12.
So
then, whatever you desire that others would do to and for you, even so do
also to and for them, for this is (sums up) the Law and the Prophets.
(The Amplified Bible) Notably,
Mrs. Smith cautioned against having un-Christ-like attitudes and being
scornful of one’s husband,
who is made in the image of God. Also,
Ephesians 5:21, Be subject to one
another out of reverence for Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) reminds
us that there can be no separation between love and submission.
Sin-based marital concepts are legalistic
and disenchanting. Conversely,
a Jesus Christ-centered
marriage gets progressively better and better.
She suggests that if there is something you would like your husband
to do for you, then you be first to do it for him.
This way of acting on God’s word
has the potential to produce much happier marriages in the body of
Christ and open the door to a
romantic intimacy unlike anything a couple has ever known before.
Now
you’ve had some time to think about it.
What reaction does that word, “romance,” produce in you?
The combination of music, humor, drama, leadership, and fellowship
at the Black Hills Women’s Retreat reminded us all that the answer has
no true value unless it is inspired by
unconditional Christ-like love.
Are you up for the challenge?
Jaye
Grant
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