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Key Bible Verse: Can two people walk together without agreeing on the direction? (Amos 3:3). Bonus Reading: 2 Timothy 2:22

I was with an unmarried friend in his late twenties. We talked about relationships, and a particular long-lasting friendship he had with a young woman who lived back home.

He didn't think he "loved" her because she didn't "look like" the person he always thought he'd marry. He just knew he thought about her every day and found several things within a day's experience that he wanted to tell her about. He missed their friendship more than he'd thought he would when he left for graduate school. He talked about her with enthusiasm, commenting on their common goals and values. He respects her work and contribution to community and church. She understands his goals and values, many of which she shares. There was obviously a comfortable compatibility between them.

I think I was able to help my friend see that the interests they held in common, their history of shared experiences and mutually held values, were more significant than he supposed for evaluating their relationship. He also began to consider that Hollywood might have had more to do with what he imagined love to be than he wanted to admit.

—Robbie Castleman in True Love in a World of False Hope

My Response: How valid is my image of an ideal partner?

Thought to Apply: To marry a woman for her beauty is like buying a house for its paint. —source unknown

Adapted from True Love in a World of False Hope (InterVarsity, 1996) by permission.

Prayer for the Week

Lord, help me trust You to arrange the single or marital state that's Your best for me.

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