Get Cured of the Hopeless Romantics!

Being a hopeless romantic is unnecessary right? I mean, it’s difficult to always be viewing the world through a pair of rosy glasses. To sigh over all the sweet and enduring moments during a book or movie. Or sob into your soaked hankie at weddings, either because the bride is so beautiful (and she always is) or because we’re convinced a married life is

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never for this romantic. We are also prone to be very dramatic. (I am, of course, the exception. ;-)

So how do you retrain your hopeless romantic self?

#1: stop watching romantic chick flicks. Just stop now. Turn off the Hallmark channel, pack up the Jane Austen movies and fill your DVR with plenty of cooking episodes, murder mysteries or 20/20-Dateline type shows.

#2: Biographies are your new go-to reading material. Either that or science fiction. You’ll probably still get the whole happily ever after factor, without muddling through all the mushy, gushy, kissing romance type stuff.

#3: Stay off Facebook. With all those people announcing their engagements, marriages and relationships, it really isn’t wise to be saturated in their happiness, dreaming for the day you can update your status in the same direction.

#4: For pity’s sake stop Googling wedding pictures! (and no hopeless romantic has ever done this, I’m sure) Sighing over strangers is really quite…well…strange, no matter how much you think the pictures speak for love and happiness.

#5: Beware of Pinterest. Just because you can, doesn’t mean that you should follow all those wedding and cute couple boards. It will really only continue to feed this hopeless romantic notion we are trying to squash here.

Enough with the fun and games.

(I hope you laughed a time or two during this ridiculous list!)

Hopeless romantics really can’t change. We are who we are and we see the world with a wonderful rosy glow that makes everything a little bit more lovely. We take pleasure in the cute couples with their little pig tailed darlings and dream of the day, that it’s us with the ring on our finger, the handsome man at our side and our children playing around us.  

It’s easy to dream these things and wander down the path of Hopeless Romance. We shouldn’t try to stop enjoying this part of who we are. But we also can’t fall into the rut of constant hopeless romance. When our dreams consume our every waking moment (speaking to yours truly right now) then we miss out on the life we’re living now.

We miss connecting with God.

We miss connecting with friends.

We miss seeing new places. Enjoying the gifts of spring, summer, fall, winter, life.

We miss the joy of children and families that are not ours that we can send home with their own parents. ;-)

Dreams are amazing. It’s my “one word” for 2014. I love to dream. It’s hanging on a metal tag under my rearview mirror in my car. But we should be jealous of these dreams. Pray over them. Give them back to God and not let them warp or forget where and what we’re enjoying now.

It seems to be the constant prayer of this hopeless romantic. :- )

Do you have a hard time dividing real life from your hopeless romantic tendencies?