My glory.

"Therefore I am now going to allure her;
I will lead her into the desert
and speak tenderly to her.

There I will give her back her vineyards,
and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
There she will sing as in the days of her youth,
as in the day she came up out of Egypt.

"In that day," declares the LORD,
"you will call me 'my husband';
you will no longer call me 'my master.'

I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips;
no longer will their names be invoked.

In that day I will make a covenant for them
with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air
and the creatures that move along the ground.
Bow and sword and battle
I will abolish from the land,
so that all may lie down in safety.

I will betroth you to me forever;
I will betroth you in righteousness and justice,
in love and compassion.

I will betroth you in faithfulness,
and you will acknowledge the LORD.

"In that day I will respond,"
declares the LORD—
"I will respond to the skies,
and they will respond to the earth;

and the earth will respond to the grain,
the new wine and oil,
and they will respond to Jezreel.

I will plant her for myself in the land;
I will show my love to the one I called 'Not my loved one. '
I will say to those called 'Not my people, ' 'You are my people';
and they will say, 'You are my God.'
Hosea 2.


Today Nick and I had the Ellen Show on in the background while we cut Elias' 10 foot long nails, and The Jonas Brothers happened to be on. Of course there were hundreds of prepubescent girls screaming at them - singing along and nearly fainting with love-sick desire. Nick asked me what we'll do when Glory reaches that age - where she's screaming and hollering for some random boy band. I'm not quite sure what the answer to that question is, I figure I'll have to call my sister and mom & ask their advice. But it did get me to thinking about how much we long for love as women...

The girls and I are reading 'A Woman and her God' for our small group and this week's reading is all about how when we don't go to God to fulfill our needs, we resort to subsistence or substitution living. Subsistant living is when we go around begging others for what we think we need - encouragment, support, and love. Substitution living is when we full out worship idols or other gods rather than our Creator. This week I'm praying this passage from Hosea for the girls.... that they'd see Jesus as the lover who is calling them home, daily.

I obviously am also praying it for myself and my Glory girl. I pray that I'd live in a way that shows her The One who is always calling to her and who longs to speak tenderly to her. It's in our very nature to scream like a schoolgirl at our hero, our lover, the one we long to walk with... it will just take some time for me to show her that is Jesus - not the youngest of the Jonas brothers.