This Day in History: 0000-08-18

August 18 – Song of Songs 2:7

Promise me, O women of Jerusalem, 
by the gazelles and wild deer, 
not to awaken love until the time is right.

What an important, but often overlooked truth! Are we being careful with our hearts? Are we teaching our sons and daughters to do the same? Do we value what God has designed in the same way He does?

Our society certainly does not. Television, movies, YouTube, magazines, the internet, it’s all full of messages that tell us we need to put our sexuality on display. These messages try to convince us femininity is defined by allure. Little girls are bombarded with jacked up pictures of love and made to believe their whole purpose is to find and pursue those sinful relationships, while little boys are being convinced loose women will satisfy them. Even as adults, we often find these perversions dominate the way we think!

That’s not how God designed it though. It’s not how He sees His dearly loved daughters, and not what he wants for His precious sons.

Our Savior wants the little ones to come to Him, pure and undefiled. He wants men and women to follow the example of Mary and learn at His feet. He wants us to delight ourselves in Him and He wants to shape our desires according to His perfect will and plan.

He often wants to bring us love in its season, but only after we’ve learned to define it by who He is. Only after we’ve learned to find our identity in Him! Until that time, His desire is for that part of us to stay dormant. Asleep. He wants it to be safe and protected so that when it is awakened by Him, it will be pure and beautiful.

Can we commit to pursue that goal? Can we work hard to teach it to our children? Can we try to reshape the way the women of God are defined? Can we start teaching men of God what true fulfillment looks like? Can we not awaken love until the time is right?