Michelle McKinney Hammond - A Sassy Girls Guide to Loving God: Discovering the Ultimate Relationship

Verses marked NIV are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Verses marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible, 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

Verses marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture paraphrases in the Love Notes section of each chapter are the authors own.

Cover by Koechel Peterson & Associates, Minneapolis, Minnesota

A Sassy Girls Guide to Loving God

Formerly Get a Love Life

Copyright 2000 by Michelle McKinney Hammond

Published by Harvest House Publishers

Eugene, Oregon 97402

www.harvesthousepublishers.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

McKinney Hammond, Michelle, 1957

Get a love life / Michelle McKinney Hammond

p. cm.

ISBN 0-7369-1388-2

1. GodWorship and love. I. Title

BV4817 .M38 1999

231'.6dc21

99-042962

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, digital, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Printed in the United States of America.

05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 / VP / 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

T his one is for the One who loves me most.

Lord, my heart burns for You. It is my
determination to keep the flame high.

A cknowledgments

To my wonderful parents,

Mr. & Mrs. George & Charity Hammond

Mr. & Mrs. William & Norma McKinney

You have taught me what love looks

like by your example.

To my Harvest House Family,

you continue to inspire me with your

wonderfulness. I love you.

To Steve Miller,

thanks for keeping me honest!

To all my buds and sistersyou know who you are.

Your unconditional love means more

to me by the minute.

C ontents

1
Hows Your
Love Life?

F rom the moment she entered the restaurant I could tell something was different about Shirley. Shed changed since the last time we had gotten together. The girl was literally vibrating as she bounced into the room. Others must have sensed it, too, because heads turned to follow her progress as she made her way toward my table. I noticed that the majority of her observers were men. And who could blame them? Not only did she look as sharp as a tack in her cream-colored designer suit, Shirley literally glowed! She radiated joy and contentment. Truly, all was well in her world. She slid into the seat opposite me, looking very pleased with herself, and pulled up her chair, landing both elbows on the table and leaning in toward me for effect.

So, whats new with you? she said. Immediately I knew she was asking this question simply to be polite. That much was obvious. From the Cheshire cat grin on her face, she was literally bursting at the seams to tell me something exciting. Although all the obvious signs made Shirleys news amusingly apparent, I purposed not to ruin her fun by guessing aloud what she was dying to tell me. To tell you the truth, I rather enjoyed watching her squirm as she waited for me to finish my list of catch-up notes. Finally, when I knew she couldnt hold back her news any longer, I eased her blood pressure by asking, So, hows your love life?

It is absolutely fabulous! she purred, the excitement in her voice reminding me of a car in high idle. In fact, if she had been a vehicle, I think she would have jump-started right there on the spot and run over me. From across the table I could feel her heart racing at the mere thought of the new man in her life. Girl, this is it! she said, shifting her position for emphasis. I have finally met HIM!

Oooh, this was serious. HIM was not to be confused with merely him. This was final. I felt a little envious as Shirley began her dissertation on all the points that had caused her to conclude that this definitely was HIM. He was this; he was that. Oh! And by the way, he was all of that and more. He was the most gorgeous man she had ever seen in her life. On that note she whipped out a picture of HIM for me to see. He was all right in my estimation, nothing to write home about, yet he was everything to her. Needless to say our entire lunch was filled with HIM. Every word he spoke was the essence of brilliance, and everything he did was, well, you get the picture. And when we actually werent talking about HIM, I could tell from her distant eyes and feeble attempts to pretend she was listening to my words that her mind was still on HIM.

After we had finished lunch and gone our separate ways, I felt as if I had a HIM hangover. I shook my head, chuckling to myself, Wow! Thats some kind of love. I thought of my own life as a single woman and how many times I have been addressed with that same question: Hows your love life? There have been times when Ive been quick to answer, I dont have one. But lately my answer has changed. I, like my girlfriend Shirley, now find myself answering with a smile on my face, It is just simply divine.

I Feel Love

Divine indeed! Because my love interest is not just any man. This man is a lover like no other; he loves me down to my very soul! I know he has millions of other women, yet he makes me feel as if I am the only one. And though I know I have to share him with others, I dont mind because he is always available when I need him. Hes generous, thoughtful, sensitive, wise, strong, consistent, faithful, true, and always keeps his promises. And, on top of all of that, he is the fairest of ten thousand. Yes, you guessed it; the lover of my soul is Jesus. Weve got a love thing going on! As I began to share this with some of my friends, their expressions ranged from a quiet knowing to envy to complete befuddlement. This was when I realized that many Christians, though quick to say that they love the Lord, are not acquainted with the concept nor the experience of truly being in love with Him. There is a difference between loving and being in love. And the balance between the two can create a serious deficit in a relationship. This is where many marriages fall apart.

One of my favorite poems is by the French poet Jacques Prevert. It narrates the early morning breakfast of a married couple from the wifes point of view. It is a mournful tale of her loneliness as she watches her husband go through the motions of preparing a cup of coffee, smoking a cigarette, and putting on his hat and raincoat as he prepares to go out into the morning. As she systematically lists his every move, she punctuates each action with the words, without looking at me, without speaking to me. Poor woman! Can you imagine what it would be like to live in a home with someone who did not even acknowledge your presence? And this couple was French! If you know anything about the French, the mavens of romance, you know that they didnt start off that way. If that were the case, they never would have made it to the marriage altar.

As I pondered how a marriage could deteriorate to such a pitiful state of affairs with two people living together in such a sorry fashion, a thought hit me. I realized God could write this same poem about His relationship with many of us. As Christians we make up the body of the bride of Christ. If the truth were told, most of us are in a pretty dry marriage with our Savior. We, like young honeymooners, were in a state of bliss when we first came to the Lord. Do you remember that time? Couldnt get enough of reading the Word. Beat the pastor to the church for every service and Bible class. Couldnt stop witnessing and inviting even your enemies to church. Mmm hmm, I knew you could relate to what I was talking about. But then something happened. Somewhere along the way we lost our passion. We decided we just didnt need to make all of that effort. It was time to exercise wisdom. Like those who settle into a marriage and decide there is no more need to date, that the money would best be saved for the mortgage, we concluded that we should be practical about spiritual things. We didnt want to be accused of being fanatical or obsessed with this Jesus thing. So we calmed down and became more pragmatic about our newfound faith.