Dating Jesus

This post first published for Instagram @letters4luv. Check them out for more encouragement from inspiring women.

For most of my life I was searching for Prince Charming. My first date was at the very young age of 5. I had multiple long term relationships throughout middle and high school and into college. When all of those romances failed, my heart was broken, lonely, and feeling empty. I wish I'd known that my Prince had been there all along.

For pretty much the first time in my life I was single, how was I going to live without a boyfriend? I didn’t quite know how to do that, so I turned to the dust covered book on my dorm room shelf. While I knew all the stories by heart from Sunday school, I decided to read it instead as a love letter addressed to me from God. That night I had my 1st date with Jesus. I had known about Him my whole life, but I never treated us like a REAL relationship.

Instead of calling my boyfriend on my drive to and from school, I talked to Jesus pretending He was sitting in my front seat. Instead of texting a boy on my way to class, I’d silently talk to Jesus about my insecurities and hopes. At night instead of Facetiming my boyfriend, I’d curl up with my Bible & my journal and read his love letter to me and respond with my own.

I was single and happy. Genuinely happy. I was sharing my pain, anxieties, hopes and dreams with someone who ACTUALLY had the power to bring comfort, peace, joy, love into my life. I saw how my past relationships were doomed to fail, because I was depending on a broken, human being to fill the deepest desires of my heart.

When I started treating Jesus as the true Love of my life, I began to learn what—rather WHO— True Love really is. He is the Prince of Peace I've been searching my whole life for. He is the greatest love story ever told. He sacrificed his life for us. He defeated death itself. An eternity with Him is my happily ever after.