Love Will Prevail

At the age of nineteen I met my handsome future Husband, Luther. It was in January,2004 when I first laid eyes on him. He later told me that he actually saw me before our meeting because his step brothers were talking about me as I was the new girl in town.

One day, my Stepfather was holding a little get’’ together at the house. He invited his two sons and he knew Luther personally and invited him over as well, because he appreciated Luther as a son. It was that day that our eyes first met. Boy, I tell you, he was the deal. Handsome, stylish, and he smelled good. I didn’t even have to be close to him to smell his cologne. He was different! Many other young men were trying to come close to talk to me, but not Luther. I wondered why? Because he showed no interest in anything else but me. But yet! he stayed far away.

I was enjoying myself that evening, and I was happy. I love writing stories and, besides writing, I love music, singing, and dancing. And there was some good music playing. So, yes, I was having a good time dancing. Luther looked at me from a distance where his brown eyes met my brown eyes, and my precise and highly organized world rocked. It was a timeless look of recognition, of deep awareness. We were total strangers, and yet stared at each other with the look of lovers. But I remembered what had happened to me before and I wasn’t the stupid, innocent girl any more. I had learned my lesson. But there was no mis-taking the sensations flooding over me, the sudden rush of excitement, the thumping heart. I’m not ready for all that, I told myself. I’d been fooled before and I was not about to let it happen again I told my-self. I was on a mission I didn’t have time to play around because I was already falling behind.

But for one strange reason, or should I say, to make things complicated, my mother kind of sense some-thing by the way Luther was looking at me the whole time from a distance. Of all the young men, there my mother admired him the most. She went on and invited him back over for dinner. When he came over, we talked a little. And the next time he came over he had two little girls with him. Out of curiosity I said they looked like you. Luther then introduced them as his daughters. My heart jumped out of my chest, as he mentioned that he was in a relationship before but it didn’t work out. And she was still alive. I had these negative thoughts rushing through my head - red flags, red flags, that’s not what you’ve dreamed of. I stood there and then said Hi to the kids. I did appreciate the fact that he was so opened about the whole situation but, Dear Lord, I asked myself, is this another test? Because, if this is, I’m not ready.

For one reason or the other, we became friends and exchanged numbers. He made it clear that he liked me. I was expecting him to call me the same evening, or, maybe the next day, but he didn’t. On the third day, I waited, but no call came. So, I called him. When he answered the phone, the first thing I said was “well, since you didn’t call me, I’m not going to call you anymore, bye!’’ He said “no, no, wait, I wanted to call you, but I didn’t want to pressure you much.’’

I got these feelings coming through me saying, God will do the changes when we start acting on faith, by allowing Him to be our leader. Luther started expressing the way he felt when he saw me; he said that he hasn’t felt that way in a while. And I asked him, “how come?’’ He explained that he and his baby mama broke up, it was such a devastation that he made a promise to himself to never get into a serious relationship again. He went on to say that he would date and play around, but that’s all. He said that when he met me his whole perspective changed. I shared my point of view with him on how I resented men who have past relationships that involved children, due to how I witnessed things when I was growing up, where wives would be accused for some things, and some-times mistreated because of outside children. I said that I wanted to have somebody to grow old with. I also told him that I had dated before, which I thought was something serious but was not, and my dream was to have a family of my own but, unfortunately, I was told that I wouldn’t be able to have children due to a surgery in the past.

After sharing my point of view, I thought that would change his perspective of me. But instead, he said that he wanted to know me better. he was insisting on how much he liked me because he was interested more in my future than my past, because my past didn’t have him, but my future would.

Ever since then, we’ve been talking and came to find out that we had a lot in common. We shared similar dreams but for some reason life was taking its best shots at us in every facet of our lives.

But when we met, we became a shoulder for each other to lean on. But I was a little skeptical about the fact that his father had a similar life style as my father with many women and kids everywhere. That sounded scary to me be-cause most boys’ role model is their father. They want to be like their father if not worse, and I was not open for that. But there was a relief in my spirit when he mentioned that he didn’t like his father’s lifestyle, as his mother suffered great pain because of his father’s. His father, he said, was never married, and had many women but didn’t really love them. So, he said, he wanted to break that cycle.

My heart Rejoiced and song, Hallelujah!

Sometimes the enemy tries to force our attention backward, focusing on our past because he doesn’t want us to move forward to our future. The enemy is afraid of our future and knows that he has already been defeated. He will try everything to keep us from going forward.

One-day Luther was dropping me to work. I remembered getting into his car for the very first time. His car was so clean, so cozy, and so cold. I was so nervous, and to add to my nervousness he touched my hand. I felt like an electricity shock running through my whole body. His touch transmitted a tingling message to every nerve in my body. When he held onto my hand, I looked at him and quickly looked away be-cause his eyes reflected his inner power. There was a connection between us, and I felt a sense of belonging for the very first time in my life. I felt his heart, his sincerity, that he was not out to hurt me. I found that I was quivering with anticipation and fought for control.

I tried to resist him because I was disappointed once and I didn’t want to be disappointed again. Disappointments make us afraid to move forward. But I also didn’t want to miss the possibility that God gave me to do what he wants this time around, not what I wanted. I felt the chemistry was so strong, we were destined to be together. But I was playing hard to get! I wanted him to chase me and to demonstrate that he truly wanted to have me, that I was not just another girl to him. He did.....

I spent years searching for the prize, and here in his heart, I am the prize. God is Awesome, and He is the redeemer.