standing is always better than falling

Ok... So... Here I am... spending yet another day at the apartment. I truly think I may be over this stage of depression that seems to have been attempting to hold me hostage. Thanks to Jamie and her advising me to "rebuke the devil and plead the blood" I feel like a weight has been lifted. Now whether, as Sharon had once told me, giving myself permission to get over something, or giving myself permisson to not be in control will help... so... I believe these two instances are close to each other and which ever one actually helped... I am thankful it did. I am also thankful for a God that never gets tired of listening!!!!  (and speaking)  :)

As I was checking my bank account to see if I could afford a little retail therapy later I got the urge to check out one of my favorite Christian magazines website. While there I found a column that I wish the writer could've written an entire book on.  The article is called Dangers of Emotional Pornography. Not only does the writer talk about how Disney and Hollywood have managed to completely obliterate what love truly is... but also how we view that love.

Unfortunately, our pop culture literary and artistic history has made us believe from our early childhood that there will be a moment when we find love.  There will be a fall... and it will be amazing... Then the story or song ends... Seriously?  And we fell for it.  All of us.  Whether we want to believe we have or not, we have.

Every little girl somewhere truly believes that there is that one guy out there for her that will make her feel safe and will shower her with tokens of his affection. That the wedding day is what it's all about... the big days... where you have a baby, get married, etc, etc... Epic Fail....

I myself have fallen guilty to using the phrase "falling in love" that is until I took the hardest class I've ever taken in college : Love and Friendship. As the semester continued I heard from so many of the author's we read and my professors (we had 2 for the class) something my mom and step-dad had tried telling me for years. Standing is always better than falling.

When I was younger I thought this was just a poke at my clumsiness... Now I know better. They were trying to help me.

Falling.  Not fun to think about. Falling in love. Sounds good. Until you think about it. A fall is generally a short experience. Somewhat scary, but almost always unpleasant and hardly ever a deliberate action. 


Standing. Plain, somewhat boring. But firm. No one ever stands up on accident. Or just happens to stand.  You make a conscious decision to stand.

Similiar to the hymn "Standing on the Promises"  standing in love is a much more viable and healthy option to falling. Falling in love probably has a big part in our divorce rate.  Because in the time of instant gratification and self-help, people aren't as interested in making the effort required to stand in love with someone. I mean, who would?  Falling gives you that emotional high that is like no other feeling.  But they don't realize, with standing in love, you get those moments too. It takes more work. It can be hard. But as I've heard more times than I can count "anything worthwhile isn't gonna be easy".  And how true.

Not to toot my own horn. But Chad and I made a conscious decision to stand in love. When I first brought this topic up to him  he thought I was crazy. He didn't say so... but his face did. That is until I explained it to him. Now, keep in mind this was March and we'd only been dating since the previous Thanksgiving. I had told him I didn't feel the need to rush into anything for anyone because that's what I was looking for. Someone to stand with. Stand next to. Someone to face the world with and stand before God with.

It sounds cheesey, I know. But this is something I feel strongly about. Our media is telling us that it's all about the "feel good" and the big days. Leaving out the little things that make it all worth while...

I know this was rambly (is that even a word?) and I'll try to do better next time with expressing my thoughts in a linear manor... :)