DREAMING of: That Perfect White Day

Have you picked out your wedding dress?

On the top of my desk is a drawing by a dear friend of mine. It’s of my heroine in my fifth book: Addie. Addie is one of those characters that gets under my skin and I want to see her gain her wings. But she’s still crouched in the shadows waiting to unfurl and fly away. Addie has a problem. She’s got the wedding dress and no groom. No fiancée. No boyfriend. No prospect. But she’s got that white dress and has hidden it in the back of her aunt’s store…where no one will find it.

Don’t we all have a bit (chunk) of Addie in our lives? If it’s not you, it might be your daughter or your best friend or your best friend’s daughter. We’re sitting on the edge of that seat, waiting for the right guy to come along so we can grab our perfect dreamed-for white dress and rush down the aisle before he changes his mind.

We listen to sweet love songs. Read romance novels. Moan over wedding pictures. Pin hundreds (thousands) of ideas for our perfect day on Pinterest. We feed this obsession we have with finding our handsome Prince Charming and how happy and joyous that day will be. And well it should be!

But the problem with Addie (and most of us, if truth were to be told) is that we focus on that white dress instead of keeping our hearts white and pure in all things. Really, after that day where we commit our hearts to our one and only, the dress won’t be worn again. You might pull it out for special occasions, but I can count on one finger the number of times I’ve seen my mama’s wedding dress.

The dress does not a marriage make.

See, that’s another one of Addie’s problems. She’s basing her future around a dress. How perfect the day will be and whose face will be at the end of the aisle. She’s dreaming about the day instead of what that day brings: a future with someone you’re committing your entire life to love and honor.

If I’m going to do this “dreaming” thing right this year as my “one word” for 2014, I can’t just “dream” whatever I want. Sure, I can imagine and have some plans lined out in my head, but if I’m dreaming of a future and a marriage and a family, trusting God that day is headed my way, then I better be doing that dream justice. So what am I doing to remain faithful in that dream?

I better be reading His word. I better be talking with and surrounding myself with women and wives I respect. It’s not a one day trip, it’s a life-time journey. It all starts with a beautiful, white-dress day, but until that day I’m dreaming of, I challenge myself (and you!) to lean hard into God.

We’re dreaming of/for our future, ladies, let’s commit these days as singles to learning His truth and path for us now.  

Photo credit
A series of posts centered around my "one word" for 2014