"Your Experiences are Your Chance
to Define Meaning in Your Life"

Can You Wait on Love?

On New Year’s Eve when he had no one to kiss, on Valentine’s Day when he had no one to send him a card, he wrote love letters to “his heart’s desire,” and trusted that God would open his heart and his eyes to the right person.  On his wedding day, his gift to his bride was a box of love letters written to her when he didn’t even know who she was. What a beautiful story of preparing for love while trusting in God! 

     Over the years, I have witnessed people spending countless hours and money trying to decide how to tell someone they loved him or her.  Admittedly, I assisted many of those people in my former balloon decorating business by helping turn some of those thoughts into reality.  I’ve tied hundreds of balloons to bottles of Cristal champagne, made a three-foot gift basket filled with over $1000 worth of designer perfumes and colognes and camouflaged $5000 cash in a four-foot hot air balloon basket for a client who was surprising his wife with spending money on a trip to meet Nelson Mandela.  Most times this was fun and I enjoyed building relationships by helping people with their love adventures.

     On the other hand, I’ve witnessed many others spend countless hours looking for someone to love and most important someone to love them.  There were even those who spent money sending elaborate arrangements to themselves at the office so others would think they were loved and in a great relationship. Thinking back, I only wish my Christian walk was as it is today, so I could have told them about “real love.”  If only they had loved themselves like they wanted someone to love them. 

     Nearly fifteen years later, some of the relationships I developed in that business are still in my life.  Some are friends who have gone on to find love and others are still trusting in God.  As we grow older, some of the things that were important in those days don’t seem to matter anymore.  We’ve learned to love ourselves by enriching our lives and filling our time with activities that bring value and personal fulfillment.  More important, we recognize we do not need other people to define who we are.  Those days when we are lonely, we pamper ourselves at a spa, become a mentor, write a book, start a business or hobby, take a weekend trip with friends, but most of all, we keep on trusting in God!