My First True Love

February 15, 2010

 Valentine's Day is one of the many commercialized holidays. While for some its a day people celebrate the love of their lives, for others its a reminder of one's singleness.
I ( Jackie) want to share my first love. No, its not my first boyfriend in Kindergarten or the time I thought I was in love at age 16. My first love is the one who loved me first: Jesus. "We love because he first loved us." 1 John 4:19 I remember growing up waiting for my fairy tale romance, the man who would come sweep me up off my feet, and change my life forever. Well, it didn't happen like a fairy tale or some romantic comedy movie, it was better than that. This love saved me from myself and for ever believing that there is a better love or a better promised, happier life, except to spend a life/eternity with our Lord. From then, at age 20, my life did change forever.
My prayer is that you experience this such love that is unheard of today. With 50% of all marriages ending in divorce, its hard to believe in forever love. With Christ, His love is forever, it never changes, and it is not conditional. I am thankful that he loves me without expecting my love in return.
The next love story I want to share, is the love story of Cory & I. Two years ago, when Cory and I just started dating; Cory and I were having a phone date ( He was in Iowa and I was in Indy). Since, we knew we couldn't celebrate Valentine's Day together, we made it a point to have a phone date. We had a longer than normal phone call and as I was laying in bed ( late at night), twirling my hair, when I heard a knock on my door. I told Cory to hold on, that someone was at my door. I went to my door and there standing was Cory with Dove Dark Chocolate. He ended his job in Iowa and drove 14 hours from Iowa to be with me. It has never been the same since. A little over a year of marriage, and our love never grows old, never boring, and the best character growing ever. I know that as long as Cory & I strive to know Jesus more and to keep Him in the center of our marriage; it will remain strong.
I have posted a few pictures from our Valentine's weekend. We don't need a reminder one day of the year to show or tell our love, these pictures are just a glimpse of what we do to show that we enjoy spending time together and that we love each other. You can probably see that year round on Thursday Night, date night. We just happened to enjoy it at the movie theatre this weekend to see When in Rome ( hilarious), getting my awesome new coffee mug from Hubbard & Craven's, and shopping for our new lamp shades at Restoration Hardware. We ended the weekend at the Flying Cupcake and had Red Velvet Elvis & Cordially Yours Cupcakes ( amazing), Starbucks for some Izze drinks, then ended the evening with some awesome home- cooked chinese and hot cocoa!