This weekend we had a group of delightful young ladies at our house for a slumber party. These girls are wonderful…the kind I enjoy having at our house. They all love Jesus and know how to have a goo time together. What amused me this time was how the 15 year old had her wedding planned out in detail — if you knew this young lady, you wouldn’t be surprised.

But each of the girls had already thought a lot about their weddings. They knew what dresses they liked and didn’t like. They’d watched crazy shows on TV where women spent $100,000 on a dress and thought it was ridiculous — a thought I encouraged.

As I listened to them, I was reminded that God created us with the love of romantic love. We all want to be Cinderella after the prince discovers her. Snow White or Sleeping Beauty when the prince saves her with his kiss. We long for the man who will see us, the real us, and find that person worth fighting for and protecting. Worth loving for the rest of our lives. We want the happily ever after.

How do we balance that with the need to not awaken love before its time? The longing for a hero?

My prayer is that these girls will fall in love with Jesus first. That as Dannah Gresh puts it, they will fall so in love with Jesus, that a man has to go through Him to find them. That their first romance will be with the one who was willing to give up everything for them. To seek them when they were lost and find them. To lay down everything so they could be redeemed.

Because that’s a love story that will never end. It will always cherish and protect them.