It’s a question people ponder all their life. Mostly its people who are into vanity thinking the stunning girl is out of her mind, but the truth remains a mystery to the small minded of this world. All the handsome guys want the girl, all the average girls look down on her, but perhaps that ugly guy could teach you a thing or two. I did some thinking and with some study I worked it out. It is true love and it’s a good yarn to read.

I don’t know how you think or how you behave but let me tell you how I find out the things I want to know.

If I want to know something, the first thing I do is ask someone who should know the answer to my question my question. I grew up asking heaps of questions. I still ask them of learned people and I search out things myself. When I asked my mother a question I had with the Bible once I stumped her and I learned there is always a higher authority.

Sometimes I have asked my mother a spiritual question, went to books written on the subject of my question and still come up short. I am very deep sometimes and sometimes I want the deep answer.

Then sometimes I don’t ask people a question, I simply think about it for a long time. The question of why that stunning girl dates that ugly guy I worked out by myself and by chatting to some very pretty women.

There are three reasons people give me when I ask them, why pretty women date ugly guys. Two of them I will mention and one is crude. Then after I mention them I will go on to a deeper and more loving reason that I discovered.

People say pretty women date ugly guys because.

1. The guy has got something she really desires in life. Most often this is money and possessions and the capacity for her to live her life with no worry about money. This can even be something noble, he is a respected film producer and she is a talented actress.

2. Or the guy can supply her with all the drugs she wants to take to be out of her mind and have a good time in her youth.

I often looked at Mick Jagger and wondered was it just 1 and 2 that the pretty girls fell for that have been in his life. I think it may be one and two but possibly the third that I will share.

So why else does a pretty lass fall in love with an ugly guy?

From the time a little baby girl is born who has really pretty features she is complimented. A really cute baby gets a mother plenty of compliments and most of them are by women to her. Sure the father may be complimented also, but the prettiness of a little girl seems to be credited to her pretty mother.

If the mother is into her little pretty daughter a lot, the mother might even go as far as enter her little child into baby contests and if the little girl smiles in her picture and is really judged by the judges of prettiness as the best child, the mother will have a ribbon or a framed picture of that to show her daughter when she is old enough.

When I was a growing teenager I used to see a really pretty girl and thought it was a compliment to tell them that they were really pretty and then ask them if they had ever considered being a model. I did this a lot as I was mixed up sort of guy, who didn’t get a lot of love in his life and talking to pretty girls and keeping them in conversation made me feel good. But one thing I noticed after using the line many times was the pretty girls didn’t really think they had been complimented. In fact on many occasions they cut me short and made it clear that my line of speech had ruined their day.

Why was this so? I had to ask myself.

Why would a stunning girl get offended by a boy or a man telling her she was stunning?

Do you know the one thing that a really pretty girl most often misses out on?

Genuine love and appreciation for the talents she has inside her and for her heart and her secret desires to change the world she lives in. People seem to only see her skin deep and some stunning girls in this world are told to be quiet when they try and prove that they are also very intelligent.

I have to laugh the other day I saw a stunning Barrister with one of those wigs on that they wear in court and I pointed her out to another businessman that was walking next to me and he agreed a stunning intelligent women was in another class. He joked that he wished he could have got her business card and use her for his law work.

It’s a sad truth that most men prefer blonds and many brunettes dye their hair blonde to cater to this love and bias in men, yet this self same evil world we live in comes out with a hundred and one dumb blonde jokes. Do you know essentially what we are saying as we share these dumb blonde jokes and laugh in the presence of a blonde who can hear it? We are saying, dress up for me, look pretty, be a lady in public and a sex object behind closed doors but shut your mouth because we don’t want to hear anything you say!

I am a guy who has always loved brunettes, perhaps because my mother is one and I am a mummy’s boy. I just love black hair. The only blondes I really ever liked were the ones they dyed their hair blonde and had black eyelashes and eyebrows. This was nothing to do with intelligence it is my love of black and black eyebrows and eyelashes told me I was looking at a brunette.

The only thing a stunning blonde or brunette can never be sure of is this.

They can never be sure their friends love them for who they are inside or for what they look like on the inside. This is a sad way to live.

Yet along comes an ugly guy and the one thing that he can be very confident of is that his friends love him for who he is and not what he looks like. No one hangs around an ugly guy with no money and no drugs because of fringe benefits. So if you meet an ugly guy that has heaps of friends you have met one guy that has met this hypocritical and shallow educated world we live in head on and triumphed.

Let me say here, that I rarely meet people that I could even call ugly, such am I connected to hearts and not outer appearance in people.

These ugly guys that conquered the world have magnetism because there is nothing that attracts like skin and outer beauty that this sick world considers to be worth more then gold, their beauty is an inner beauty that cannot be bought, traded or copied. An ugly guy like this has a lot of real life questions he can answer for you and if you are lacking in love for yourself in areas of your life, most often he will have the key. I know one guy that was pretty ugly who set the whole world on fire but I have never seen a picture that represents Him like the Bible explains His looks to have been. I am going to quote a scripture out of the Bible here, but don’t worry, it won’t hurt you.

Isaiah 53:1-2

1 Who has believed our report?

There is no beauty that we should desire Him.

Another version says Jesus did not say He looked worthy of being a king.

Isaiah 53:1-2

1WHO HAS believed (trusted in, relied upon, and clung to) our message [of that which was revealed to us]? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been disclosed?(A)

2For [the Servant of God] grew up before Him like a tender plant, and like a root out of dry ground; He has no form or comeliness [royal, kingly pomp], that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him.

This is the only mention in the Bible of what Jesus looked like yet every single picture I have ever seen of Jesus is a handsome picture. Jesus was what we consider very plain or ugly. He had NO beauty We have been sold a lie by Satan and we were commanded by God in the Ten commandments not to make a graven images and worship them. In painting handsome paintings of Jesus we have distorted the truth of what Jesus really looked like. No painter has ever had the courage to paint an ugly Jesus and if He has it is not a very expensive one that I have seen. The simple fact is that no women would be attracted to Jesus for His good looks. But if you ask most Christian women who really follow Jesus and His teachings to the letter, you will find their love for Him surpasses any affection they should have for a mortal man.
Jesus was the ugly guy found in the company of stunning women and all the moderate looking to handsome jealous guys that saw Him said to their friends “What are such stunning women doing in the company of such an ugly guy?”

And now if you have been guilty of asking that question of a friend puffing yourself up in pride as you ask it, the laugh is on you, because you would have been one of the handsome men of Israel in that day.
When God was picking the second king of Israel as recorded in the Bible. He sent a prophet to a family whose father was named Jessie. Jessie has about seven sons as I recall. Samuel the prophet, had each of them come before him and he was trying to pick a robust and handsome king for the nation of Israel.( a person that looked like a king should) and six of the sons came past him. He simply ran out of sons that have been brought to meet him. He enquired of Jessie if Jessie had any more sons, as God had not given him a verbal go ahead with any of those that had stood before him and then Jessie answered him. “ Oh yes my youngest son is out tending sheep.” Jessie hadn’t even considered him. God told Samuel the prophet that He does not look at men based on outward appearances like men do but He looks upon the heart of a man.

We all like to say that it’s not the looks of a person that counts. It’s what’s inside, but every advertisement selling us things has handsome people selling them and we spend a fortune trying to look good and a lot less money trying to become better people on the inside.

So here comes the true love

So one day a stunning girl meets an ugly guy at work. Let’s just say he is studying music at university or some music college and she is studying to become a psychologist.

He is washing dishes and busy working for $16.50 and hour casual and she is a waitress who keeps on adding dirty dishes to his bench with no room on it for anything else, and the whole floor is full of pots and he is going flat out. She gets upset with some of her customers sometimes and he is always full of understanding and will even stop washing to console her and say:

“People want their own way in life and sometimes the meal and the way you serve them Anna, is not to their liking. Most times they are just taking something out on you because they have had a bad day and can find fault in something they didn’t like in you or the food, and they are simply dumping on you. Don’t worry about it,” he smiles. “You dump dishes down on me all the time and even when I am busy I have the time to give you a hug and a chat, and do you see me complaining? No. That’s because this is my job here to wash dirty dishes and make un-appreciated waitresses feel better.” Once again he is smiling and he turns back to the dishes. And Anna walks out smiling feeling happier, and happy he is such a giving and positive workmate.

When they have beers together after the restaurant is closed after he has asked her about all her dreams and desires in life and given her his input and his time, she may ask him what he wants to do in his life. He is a simple man. He simply wants to write music to change people’s hearts, and he has just put down the songs on his first album that he has made and is due to start selling in the city once a week as he busks to the public for spare change.

His simplicity, honesty and his creativity are three things that strongly make Anna want to know him more and she is quite fascinated how he says that he is going to basically do in music to people what she will be doing in therapy. Before long she is standing at his first live concert and a city street licking an ice cream and hearing his songs sung with a voice that is not only smooth and rich, but is packed with emotion. The fourth song has her crying and within a month Anna and her dishwasher are in love for all the right reasons.

True story?

Anna does not see him as ugly and he does not look at her outer shell. Within a year she has learned everything she needs to know from him and is not in University anymore, she is a small community college studying to be an actress. He has a director friend and a good screenwriter friend he is going to write a score of a feature film that they she is going to star in.

True story?

In many more cases then you realise. And that’s why that stunning girl dates that ugly guy.

Postscript.

Out of two hundred articles I wrote this was one of the first few as I was so sure that this would be something people would read. In fact in my local shopping mall I struck up four conversations with girls and asked them if they saw my headline in a magazine would they pick up the magazine and read it. The girls said yes and then told me I could not leave until I had let them read it. Today I publish it online to celebrate my 200th article that I have posted.

I have written the largest majority of my articles on the Christian faith, inspiring and challenging Christians do live a richer and more fulfilling life. But if you are not a Christian I have written a lot of articles on the breakdown of marriage and how to deal with divorce. I have written some articles on mental illness as I suffer both Bipolar disorder (Manic Depressive disorder) and schizophrenia and I am able to put a positive spin on these illnesses and give spiritual insight. I also have a few inspirational articles on songs and things. I encourage you to flick through my articles and see if another headline grabs you.

Matthew is one of two people that operate a site at http://www.escapeministries.net Escape ministries is a place where people can be ministered to over the internet, by reading articles, watching videos and receiving personal prophetic words. James and Matthew invite you to visit today to look at some of the articles they have collected and watch some of the video teachings they are setting about to produce for you. You are encouraged to sign up for our monthly newsletter or simply email James or Matthew with any of your comments. We hope that you might bookmark it and come back to visit often as we pursue our mission statement that is found on our home page.

You can visit and view their video’s live at youtube by going direct to http://www.youtube.com/EscapeMinistries

Enlarge your heart and thereby enlarge your world. Nurture and cultivate a more hopeful and life-affirming identity in others. Believe the best about people and watch them live up to your expectations.

We who are fortunate enough to live in free and progressive societies must set an example. We have to practice love and acceptance more than pontificate. We must love unconditionally and be agreeable in the midst of disagreement. We must not alienate ourselves, demonize people, nor erect walls of isolation.

Refuse to be paralyzed by your precautions, presumptions, and presuppositions. Challenge the foundation of your fears and overcome them with perfect love. Fear is self-centered and revolves around self-preservation. Love is selfless and sacrificial as it prefers others instead of itself.

Overcome evil with good. Instead of belittling yourself by cursing darkness, be the light of the world and set the standard.

Together everyone achieves more! Hence the acronym - TEAM. Let us come together as a global community, rid ourselves of the pride of self-sufficiency, and as a civilization live together peaceably.

You can do so willingly or it endure it reluctantly. For assuredly the global economy and free trade is God’s means of diplomacy to speak to humanity. It being a back door attempt to get us in our diversity to connect, collaborate, and work together creatively.

Let us imagineer and create a future where we together globally can get along peaceably, sustain ourselves economically, and celebrate one another wholeheartedly. This is a call to nations to entreat one another with humility, cooperate diplomatically, and esteem the global community. How we respond to one another internationally shall ultimately be our legacy which we shall leave to posterity.

Paul Davis is a worldwide minister, peacemaker, mediator, and life purpose coach (relational & professional).

Paul is the author of several books including Breakthrough for a Broken Heart; Adultery: 101 Reasons Not to Cheat; Are You Ready for True Love; Stop Lusting & Start Living; Waves of God; Supernatural Fire; Poems that Propel the Planet; and God vs. Religion.

Paul’s compassion for people & passion to travel has taken him to over 50 countries of the world where he has had a tremendous impact. Paul has served in many war-torn, impoverished and tsunami stricken regions of the earth. His Dream-Maker Inc. is building dreams, breaking limitations & reconciling nations.

Paul’s Breakthrough Seminars inspire, revive, awaken, impregnate with purpose, impart the fire of desire, catapult people into a new level of self-awareness, facilitate destiny discovery and dream fulfillment.

Contact Paul to minister, speak at your event or for life coaching:

RevivingNations@yahoo.com
407-284-1705
http://www.DreamMakerMinistries.com
http://www.CreativeCommunications.TV

It’s the subject of many songs, it’s the theme an opera might have, it’s had wise men pondering and writing over and it’s in the plotline of most popular novels and movies. Whether you have a Christian belief or not, I want you to take some time to read this as I take apart and explain the most profound definition I have ever seen of what love really is. It’s a passage in the Holy Bible written by an ex teacher of Jews who was busy murdering Christians before Christ pushed him off a horse and blinded him and spoke to him out of a bright light and this man went on to write a third of the New Testament of the Bible.

The scripture reads

4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails..

In part 1 we covered a number of the facets of love, today we are going to continue with the rest of them.

love does not rejoice in iniquity

If we lived in a world where there was no rejoicing in sin (iniquity) there would be no news on the Television each night. If you took away the stories where one of the ten commandments was broken from the news at night there would be little left to watch.

Love does not get excited about hearing something bad our partner has done. It does not get excited about an argument our friend had, it does not rejoice in sin. That sort of love is so foreign to us. Most of us like a bit of a juicy story, we especially like to hear someone of good reputation losing their cool. That is not love, that is our wicked hearts and the way we are as debased creatures.

but rejoices in the truth

Pure love only rejoices in the truth, not the sins a person has done but the good things. We live in a society with an appetite for all sorts of stories and there is much gossip and slanderous information going around, yet the loving person is not interested in gossip they are only interested in the truth. When they hear people gossiping they quietly excuse themselves and leave.

It says in the Bible that only a good person will look for a good report and that the wicked are only too willing to seize on bad news.

Love rejoices in the truth. Truth can be so rare these days. To find a person where the truth is always on their lips is a refreshing change. To find a person that loves like this verse is so refreshing.

Have you been rejoicing in the truth lately?

7 bears all things

Some people say in their vows in marriage, in sickness and in health, to death do us part and then something gets to much for them in their relationship and suddenly there is a separation and a divorce.

Not so with the highest form of love. For that love bears all things. No matter what comes against it, it endures and sustains itself and does not fail.

Wouldn’t it be a great world if people actually bore all things? Wouldn’t it be good if people who loved us simply didn’t give up on us and leave us for a brighter pasture next to us in the arms of another man or woman?

When you have the highest form of love, you endure all things.

believes all things

Have you been fortunate enough to have people believe in you? Have you striven for a goal and wanted to achieve something and had people believing in you? This is what Paul was talking about here. When you love a person you believe in them you believe the good things for them.

Have you people in your life like that? This is a special facet of love as so many times we want to throw it all in and give up and in these times people that believe in us can keep us going toward our goals and desires.

hopes all things

Life can be pretty dark without hope. As a Manic depressive I know a lot about depression and the effect hope can have on life. Some people have such bursting energy and many hopes and dreams and people that love these people have hope to and share in the hope

Have you people hoping for a good future with you?

Couples start out with hopes and dreams and start their journey as husband and wife and twenty years later you can talk to them and a good couple still have hope alive in their hearts not matter how many failures they have had.

Life can be disappointing. For one whole week I haven’t been able to get out of bed to write, put into bed from mental illness and yet people who love me have big hopes for me and their hope does not die if I have a week of defeat.

There has to be people in the world full of hope and people that you love need you to join alongside of them and hope with them and for them.

I still cannot get around how profoundly wise Paul was with this definition of love, better still if you find this sort of love develop in your own life.

endures all things

Every relationship no matter how solid it is has assaults come against it. Every single relationship has its ups and downs yet if you have this form of love in your life you love will endure all things and it will last.
There is something about endurance. Long distance runners have a lot of endurance. When the sweat is pouring down, the legs are aching and there is a cramp in your side, to continue running takes discipline. Such is the type of endurance you need in your relationship.

The divorce courts are full of people whose relationships do not endure all things. As a person whose own wife divorced him, I can relate to people in this situation, yet I know in nearly all instances it is because one party refuses to endure and work on the relationship and simply wants to get out.

Love, pure love, endures everything.

Love never fails.

It’s been fifteen years since my divorce and I honestly love my wife more now then when we were married. God and pure love does not fail. It does not run out. It does not quit.

Love will not fail you. Your love if it is real will not fail, no matter if it is returned or not.

My prayers for my wife sent with my love have a good and positive effect on her life still. I know they are affecting her life because all my other prayers have results and so I don’t need to be seeing her to know I am having an effect.

People may have a certificate of divorce, but if you love your former partner you love should never fail. For Paul says here true love never fails.

So relationships break down. Give the other party time to recover and then send them a card with your love expressed in it.

It’s a myth that love has failed even when a divorce is given by a judge.

True love never fails!

Matthew is one of two people that operate a site at http://www.escapeministries.net Escape ministries is a place where people can be ministered to over the internet, by reading articles, watching videos and receiving personal prophetic words. James and Matthew invite you to visit today to look at some of the articles they have collected and watch some of the video teachings they are setting about to produce for you. You are encouraged to sign up for our monthly newsletter or simply email James or Matthew with any of your comments. We hope that you might bookmark it and come back to visit often as we pursue our mission statement that is found on our home page.

You can visit and view their video’s live at youtube by going direct to http://www.youtube.com/EscapeMinistries

Finding the right person to share your life with is like searching the ocean floor until you find a clam that shelters a priceless pearl. It is so prefect that you take it to a jeweler and you place it in a beautiful ring setting so you can show it off to everyone you know. Every time you glance down at the pearl you are inspired by its brilliance and it inflames your heart with love.

This is the reason that it hurts so much when you are betrayed by love. It was as if the pearl that was so valuable fell out of it’s setting and was lost to you forever. But it was worse than that for me, because I was not lost. The person I loved just discarded me, she cut me off without a word and left me bewildered as to why. I believe one reason she tossed me aside was because our relationship would have caused a change that her family would not have liked.

She confided to me that her son forbid her to ever have anything to do with me! I was surprised, but I just brushed it off believing that her son would eventually get used to us being together. It is true I had no relationship with him after we parted, but it was her decision to cut him off from me.

We had previously spent seventeen years together and I had been her son’s other parent from the age of four. I still loved him and I still thought of him as my child. I always prayed for him and his own young son, just like my own three children, whether his mother and I were together or not.

I really didn’t understand why her family was a problem. When we were together there never was a good relationship with her father or her grandparents. So why would this time be any different.

Things were totally opposite with my own children. They were very open to the possibility of us getting back together. They all stated emphatically that they wanted me to be happy and they would accept any decision I made. Even though they knew it would mean I wouldn’t have as much time for them.

I listened to everything she had to say about how hard her coming back to me would be. I once again asked her if she was sure and she said that she was. I believed she truly was done with her current relationship and that in time her family would accept us being together.

Love shared with another person is the most valuable thing a person can have to sustain life. When love is in place then you feel secure and safe, because you know the other person has your back.

True love makes you willing to give up your life for the other person. You happily make sacrifices because the love you feel is worth more than all the money in the world.

It was an easy thing for me to not even question that she was using me for money. I believed her when she said she was behind on her bills and she needed money for food. I believed her when she said she loved me and that she and I would be together again soon.

True love is the reason why couples can face all forms of disasters. Love gives them the strength to stand by their children when they are addicted to drugs or alcohol. Love gives them the ability to face the loss of a child or to handle the affects of a natural disaster that takes everything they own. Love makes a couple strong!

This is the reason people say it is better to love than to never have loved. Human love is wonderful, but real love is to understand that when it fails, God’s love is everlasting!

I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior when I was seven years old. I didn’t understand what an important decision that was for me until I began to experience all the pain the world can throw at a person. I didn’t understand how much I would need Jesus to be my Savior!

I didn’t understand how much I needed a God that had supernatural powers. I only began to understand how much I needed a Savior when my world came crashing down around me.

My human weaknesses wanted me to give up and believe that I had no hope! My inability to hold onto love made me want to quit life and cut myself off from all human beings. I wanted to protect myself from ever being hurt again and death seemed like a wonderful option.

This is when I needed a Savior! This is when I needed Jesus Christ to give me the strength to take one day at a time. This is when I believed that I could have a future that is better than the betrayal I found from the person I loved.

Falling back onto my faith in God I sought Him to explain why I had to suffer for love. I believed that God was giving her back to me. Yet here I was alone.

When Adam and Eve ate the apple, they changed our world. Their desire to be like God brought all mankind to the valley of decision. A decision where we would be presented with choices. The Bible describes these choices as tests. The ultimate goal of the test is to get us to understand the difference between good and evil. Differences that would lead us to understand why love is God, while hate is Satan. God also refers to this as overcoming sin. This is illustrated in the example given to us when Cain kills his brother Abel.

Genesis 4: 6&7, “Then the Lord said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry? Why that scowl on your face? If you had done the right thing, you would be smiling; but because you have done evil, sin is crouching at your door. It wants to rule you, but you must overcome it.’”

The illustration of Cain and Abel shows us how freewill works in our lives. Our own will determines which path we take. One path leads to the reward of Heaven and unconditional love and the other to losing our game of life to evil and being destroyed by the tests we face.

This is the reason why those who don’t have the saving power of Jesus Christ, commit suicide or get lost in a drug addiction. They can’t stand up to the betrayals of life, so they give up. This is the reason why people commit crimes against each other by taking money under false pretenses. They do this because they choose to take care of themselves and they don’t think of how it hurts another person.

Being betrayed by love doesn’t make your heart stop loving the person. You still love and knowing how the game of life works makes you look at the betrayal differently. You are afraid for the person who caused you harm. Because you know that what she did to you was wrong.

When Jesus walked the earth He brought an entirely different message. His words changed how people reacted to those who hurt them. These words brought a kinder and gentler way of handling the problems we will face in the world with love.

Mark 12:31a, “The second most important commandment is this: ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself.’”

John 15: 12&13, “My commandment is this; love one another, just as I love you. The greatest love a person can have for his friends is to give his life for them.”

Matthew 6:14&15, “If you forgive others the wrongs they have done to you, your Father in heaven will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive the wrongs you have done.”

We are to love regardless of what happens to us. We are to forgive because when we harbor the grief we feel, then it can pull us down and make us hate. And hate is the opposite of love. To hate is to sin and that makes us just as susceptible to evil as the person who hurt us.

Matthew 6: 24, “No one can be a slave of two masters; he will hate one and love the other; he will be loyal to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

When she took money from me, I truly believed that she did have real financial needs. I do not love money, I use money to live and to help others.

I tell the story of my betrayal not to get back at the person who did this to me, because I will always love her. Rather I tell it so the betrayals that you suffer will lead you to forgive and move on with your life.

Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world and He will help you to let go of the pain. Letting go allows God to help you heal. Having faith in a supernatural God helps give you strength and helps you to endure no matter what happens to you in the greatest game ever played, the game of life.

Linda C Dipman author of THE GAME OF LIFE IT’S ALMOST OVER http://outskirtspress.com/gameoflife presents AND HIS LOVE SHONE DOWN my true life story! It describes all the persecutions I endured. It will put you on the edge of your seat as you read each vivid detail. You will feel terror and experience love like nothing you have ever read before. http://lovinghandsministry.com

A beautiful woman can inspire a person to do just about anything. But it is their heart that reveals the character of the person. Beware she can capture you through lies of love. She can be an instrument of Satan who wants to deceive you and lead you down to a trap that is meant for your destruction.

In the game of life one of the biggest players is our emotions. Feelings can make a person become jealous and words of love can make a soul willing to give anything in order to have that love.

When I was young I fell head over heals in love. This person made my heart jump. She made me want to defy all things just to have her love. But after many years of being together we both went our separate ways.

But the love never ended between us. It stayed in both of our hearts and we would talk often on the phone. She was a decorator and I was an upholster and it was only natural for us to continue our mutual business even though she was with another person. She ran the business and paid me for my upholster services. We worked as business partners and best friends who shared a past, that was all.

Over the years we shared stories about our children and we prayed together for their lives and for each of our grandchildren as each of them were born. We always stated our love for each other. Even though we were going down different roads.

After three and a half years everything changed she broke up with the person she was with. It seemed only natural for me to believe that we could once again be together. But this time things were very different.

When we first departed company, finances were tight, so in an effort to help I took out a mortgage on my home and I handed over the money to my ex, with the understanding that she would make the mortgage payment every month.

But she was desperate again and as a result I began making the payment. That wasn’t enough, she needed more money in order to pay bills that she had that were outstanding so she could leave the person she was with.

I believed everything she said, trusting that she was telling me the truth when she said that she was coming back to me. She kept assuring me that she loved me and she would use the money to get untangled from the person she was with. Out of complete trust and love, I gave her several thousand dollars.

A month passed and she continued to tell me of how bad it was to be where she was and how the person she was with didn’t love her anymore. She explained how hard it was for her to leave because everything in the house was hers, but the house itself was the other persons.

She complained the business they ran together was failing and the upholstery business wasn’t doing well either. She said in order for her to leave she needed to get the taxes done and lay down guidelines for her partner of how to pay each bill since she had always handled the business side.

Everything she said made since and being of high moral character, I didn’t want to bring harm of any kind on the person she was with. So I began doing all upholstery free of charge and I paid for supplies, material, foam and even gas to go pick up the furniture I was doing for them.

I could see their relationship was strained. But I was careful not to ask how they were doing respecting their privacy and knowing the plans that we were making after they had totally parted company.

Two more months passed and she continued to state her love to me and that she was coming back to me. So when her partner went on a trip she invited me to her house. I went because we hadn’t been together for several years and that way we could talk about the next step of her getting out of the house.

I was disturbed that she was still wearing a wedding ring on her hand and that she still slept in the same bed with her partner. She handed me a group of pictures she had kept of myself and my children and I asked her if she was still coming back to me?

She assured me that she was coming back to me. She had had enough from the emotional ups and downs of her partner, who was eighteen years younger than her and she felt a deep connection and love between us. She said that she was wearing the rings out of habit. And that she was just protecting the pictures she had of me from her partner. She denied that she was sleeping in the same bed.

Then she told me she had come up with a plan to get her furniture out of the house. She would tell her partner that she was selling the furniture we had once owned together back to me. I listened to what she said but I was unwilling to give her money at that time. I left her house and went four hours back to my home.

Everything she said to me made my heart break. I loved her and I wanted her back and if this is what it was going to take, I was willing to give her everything I had to help. She called me telling me that her partner would break her stuff if I didn’t do this. Priceless memories of our life together would be destroyed.

Plans were made, and I met them with the newly reupholstered furniture. I wrote another check for the furniture, pictures and art pieces that were suppose to be the beginning of her leaving her partner.

In two days we were to meet again with another load until we had emptied the house of everything we had together as a couple. She said her partner was stupid and would never suspect what she was doing until she was out of the house for good.

We made plans to rendezvous together on the in between days. So we could be together and talk out plans. It all seemed fair and reasonable to me. Or maybe I am the most gullible person in the world. She called and wanted to postpone us meeting together until the next week, I agreed.

The check I wrote to her cleared the bank and suddenly she stopped calling me. I emailed her to see what was happening and she had cut off the email. I was stunned and shocked over her behavior and I did not understand what was going on.

I left messages on the phone and my calls were not returned. She had stated over and over again that she loved me. She assured me that she was coming back to me.

I didn’t know how to handle her betrayal and her utter contempt for my feelings. The pain I felt was a crushing blow when I realized she not only had stabbed me in the heart, but she had taken ten’s of thousands of dollars from me without any intention of paying it back.

I felt ashamed and asked God to help me to survive the pain. I wasn’t allowed to communicate and the pain of heart break brought an emptiness inside of my being that was excruciating. I felt as if I was being punished for love.

There is no justice for fools. The check could not be stopped because it already cleared. Going to an attorney to sue would just prolong my pain from the deceit and cost me more money. The agreement we had together was verbal. Even though I confessed my plans to my children I did not tell them I was giving her money and all of my services, free.

I was totally humiliated for having been so gullible. I couldn’t believe she was doing this to me. She was suppose to love me. I was afraid for her soul.

As a Christian I believed that she loved me. In my Spirit, I believed that her coming back to me was only right. I had a vision of her partner giving her back to me. I had a dream of Satan attacking her and that I was her only hope.

I was truly committed to doing whatever was necessary to get her out of her mess. And even though she and her family had changed, I was willing to start again and love all of them unconditionally. But I am a fool and because I know I am not alone I write this to all the people who are as gullible as me.

God is love, but Satan can even deceive a good person. Beware of love! I talk a lot of the game of life and how each thing we experience has a purpose. We must not be defeated no matter what happens to us.

Many people who have been betrayed by love have committed suicide because of the pain. Believe me it sounds like a great option when you are in the throws of anguish, but it is not God’s will.

We must face our betrayals with perseverance. We must make up our minds to lean on God and trust in the end that He will fight for our cause. Don’t give up because Satan wants you to give up. Don’t allow anyone to destroy your faith in God and your knowledge that He cares for you. Pray for strength and remember above everything else that God will never let you down when you cast your cares and give them to Him.

Luke 12: 4-7, “‘I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot afterward do anything worse. I will show you whom to fear: fear God, who, after killing, has the authority to throw into hell. Believe me, he is the one you must fear!

Aren’t five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one sparrow is forgotten by God. Even the hairs of your head have all been counted. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows!’”

Being betrayed by love is the hardest thing a person can endure! But God loves you and He is ready and able to defend your cause. God also loves the person who did you wrong, but unfortunately we always face the judge whether it is in this world or in eternity that is to come.

Linda C Dipman author of THE GAME OF LIFE IT’S ALMOST OVER http://outskirtspress.com/gameoflife presents AND HIS LOVE SHONE DOWN my true life story! It describes all the persecutions I endured. It will put you on the edge of your seat as you read each vivid detail. You will feel terror and experience love like nothing you have ever read before. http://lovinghandsministry.com

Way back, before electric cars, solar bicycles, microwaves, computers, colour televisions, mobile phones, rocket launchers, plastic explosives, terrorists, ipods, fm radio, McDonalds and speed dating were invented, I was born.

I decided, at an early age, that I didn’t like the world the way it was. Mum died when I was still getting all of my nourishment from her. I was promptly handed out for adoption, taken back, moved to a country town, and from this exciting beginning, I learned to be somewhat sceptical when, a few years later the preacher would pat me on the seat of my pants and say, “God is watching over you”

Since then, I’ve vacillated between playing God, judging the people of the world for all their misdemeanours, and feeling like a God, when the sun shone and all looked just so fantastic. In those times when I searched for a meaning outside of myself, I was often temporarily impressed. A seminar, a meditation class, a new yoga back bend, falling in love, a book launch, a happy client, the birth of my children. But, alas, reality crept back in, to remind me that my idea of a God or faith that could protect me from the ravages of sadness, disappointment, failure or loss, was an illusion.

As time went on, and as an educated environmental engineer, my interest in ecology took me deep into the study of humanity, sustainability and the lifestyle of the average person. I was overwhelmed with doom when I read, Paul Erlich in the 60’s and discovered we were eating ourselves to death. I was even more shocked when I worked and travelled in Indonesia, Nepal and India to see people living for a year, on what I spent on a daily beer at the pub.

I searched for alternatives to deal with my own wish to feel good, and usurp the guilt I started to feel about the inequalities of life. I discovered that the human desire to escape pain drives most of our consumption, religion and spiritual self development. I discovered that my ambition, in seeking answers to life’s deeper questions was not to achieve some advanced level of consciousness, but to avoid or at least rationalize, pain and struggle.

For me, there were a couple of things that helped. The first was the perspective I achieved by working and travelling in the poorest places in Asia I got a perspective on my own, and other people’s problems that just made 99% of all my worries incomprehendably stupid. How could I feel sorry for myself, when I saw dead babies in the arms of helpless mothers, whose naked breast had dried to a wafer thin sack and finally could not even sustain the life of a baby. All this, as I drove in my limousine to the factory of some Asian billionaire right next door.

Another thing that helped me reconcile my issues with pain and struggle was 15 years as a personal consultant. In that time I met some of the wealthiest, fastest, most powerful people, movie starts, rock stars, farmers, tycoons, sports stars. I found Catholics, Buddhists, Moslems, Hindus, Native Americans, Jews – I found seminar teachers on happiness, inner peace, inspiration and spirituality, and none of these people in their real life, no matter how wealthy or devout, how luxurious or pious, was immune from the shit life dishes up and their reaction to it. It is still to this day, an important affirmation for me, that I am no better or worse than anyone else, even if, from time to time it feels like it.

Along the way I gained knowledge and this also helped. I learned ways to rationalize situations. I could sustain my personal comfort even when I was looking out of my office window watching the World Trade Centre collapse not more than a mile away. I could re think it, and experience no pain or emotion. This fuelled my already lopsided masculine side, think don’t feel. Understanding things is such a great way to escape feeling. But did I really want to witness life, or experience it. I had to make a choice, and this was an important turning point. If I was to feel life, I had to be willing to feel both the pleasure and the pain. A stark contradiction to the ambition that had driven most of my “spiritual and self development” quest to that time.

I discovered, hidden in those feelings, a new intimacy with life. And, the biggest surprise, a deep connection to my own intuition. Being a feeling, intuitions are definitely associated with emotions. To celebrate this intuition, I realized, that both positive and negative emotion lay in its path, this was not exactly what I expected to discover.

There were thousands of experiences, each and everyone potent. The years working with indigenous people’s of Canada on reservations, frustrations running corporate retreats for people, stuck in the wrong job, feeding the wrong marriage, paying the wrong mortgage. Their life was more spiritually impoverished than any Asian ghetto I had found. But the greatest lesson of all came from the Himalayas of Nepal.

Purely by accident, if there are such things, I found myself, carrying some emotional pain up to the top of a high mountain trek in Nepal. I reached the summit on that trek, and sat there scanning the panorama few people could dream of. Blessed in every sense of the word, I sat there, miserable, broken hearted. I was the same Chris on top of this mountain as I was sitting on the dunny, back in Sydney. Places don’t change us, places remind us. They remind us that we are the real cause.

Perspective became my catch cry. I knew that everyone gets bad luck, no matter how hard they pray, I knew that everyone has something to be thankful for, no matter how miserable. I knew that every self help program on earth ended up teaching a lie. I searched for the keys, what are the rules of the game? What are the REAL expectations of life? What are natures laws before humans add their hopes, fears, frustrations and reactions to them?

Answers came slowly, but they came. 90% of the solution comes when we ask the right question. Slowly the answers unravelled. I discovered that I was not the first person to ask this question. Thousands of people had searched before me, and many had found the answers hidden in the ancient mysteries. They too had also found that the average person was looking for pain relief, and therefore looking for the illusion not truth. Buddha even advised his teachers. “teach them the illusion until they are ready for the truth”

Perspective.

One night, in my dream, I was sitting on the moon. Looking back at this tennis ball sized thing spinning around so fast. There was earth and I, sitting with my legs crossed was watching it like I would watch a movie. Births, deaths, disasters, victories, happiness and sadness. And yet, in spite of all this mayhem, I was smiling. The whole mess, the whole drama was actually quite magnificent. The pieces of the puzzle finally came together. The real spiritual perspective comes from separation. The human one comes from attachment. When we are in it, we have no perspective, like in a relationship, a business or a speeding car we are a part of that circumstance, and therefore, we are in a human perspective. This is real life, experience, emotion, frustration, romance, success.

The opposite to human perspective is spiritual. The moon. Detached. From that perspective there is an order in the chaos. A witnessing that shows us, that our pain, and our happiness are just two sides of a coin, joined by an umbilical chord, inseparable. That suffering comes from attachment, wanting to sustain a pleasure. Not willing to experience its other half, and therefore stuck, fighting the cycles that are natures laws.

After that dream, I learned to let go of those things that I held precious. I learned the difference between loving something or someone from the moon, and attachment to them, from the earth. Suddenly, I had a way of feeling, experiencing, falling and rising with the tides of life, and yet, holding a perspective which meant, I was not like a piece of paper blown in the wind. In that dream I found home. And maybe from that day, it has been hard to find an earthy one.

What I do know now, is that love means perspective. It means sitting on the mountain top in Nepal, seeing the beauty that are the laws of nature, separating human hopes, fears and false expectations from the universal ones. Love means hold and release, hold and release. And today, sitting here in Sydney, I am once again challenged to apply what I know is the truth about love.

Live with Spirit

Chris Walker

http://www.chriswalker.com.au Chris Walker is a world leading change agent, an environmentalist and author of more than 20 books. Born and bred in Australia, he consults to people and organisations throughout the world on improved relationships, health and lifestyle through the application of the Universal laws of Nature. The result he offers is that we stay balanced, share loving relationships, work with passion, enjoy success, and live our personal truth. To learn more about Chris’s work and journeys to Nepal, visit http://www.chriswalker.com.au — http://www.chriswalker.com.au

There has been a rapid rise of Christian dating online services. This article aims to highlight some of the benefits that a Christian dating online services provide as they address the various hurdles one would have to overcome in seeking out that Godly mate.

There has been a rapid rise of Christian dating online as a result of changing work patterns and lifestyles making it difficult for Christians looking for a suitable spouse. In some cases Church congregations tend to be smaller and may not have many single Christians and even then, none may be that special person. It is therefore no great surprise to the rise of Christian dating online as an attempt to address the various hurdles one would have to overcome in seeking out that Godly mate.

There are several advantages to Christian dating online some of which are listed following.

1) Most Christian dating online sites require that subscribers provide a personal profile. This allows one the ability to search and review profiles of people that you believe that you are comfortable and compatible with. You then have an opportunity to evaluate peoples profile, including religious background and faith culture, making it more probable that you will find just the right kind of person with whom you can spend the rest of your life with. There is therefore no pressure to compromise your hearts desire, just be patient and make full of every available resource that a Christian dating online site offers and be an active participant. Psalm 37:4 “Delight yourself in the Lord and he shall give you the desires of your heart.”

2) Having come up with a short list, most Christian dating online sites offer some form of secure email or chat facility, so you do not have to give away personal contact details to total strangers until you get to know them. If the Christian dating online site does not offer secure email you are best to get a free yahoo, hotmail or similar account and use that until a level of trust has been achieved. Relationships should never be rushed and Christian dating online allows you to build relationships in a relaxed and secure environment.

3) Most Christian dating online sites have various forums that enable you to exercise your spiritual gifts through prayer, bible study and general discussions. These forums are a great way that Christian dating online sites facilitate the assessment of possible matches especially if the people you are interested in are active contributors. Some Christian dating online sites will also facilitate meetings in local areas allowing you to meet in a secure public place and more importantly in the company of other Christians.

4) For the more adventurous, Christian dating online sites provide the opportunity of building relationships with people who may not be in your immediate geographical vicinity.

5) Finally it appears to work, several Christian dating online sites report that several of their subscribers do indeed find the spouse of their dreams. However, reading the success stories would indicate that a lot of time, work, patience and prayer goes into building a successful relationship and a willingness to keep on using to the full, resources that a Christian dating online site offers.

In conclusion, Christian dating online allows for the connection to other like minded Christians. The developing of relationships, and eventually leading to the finding of that special person in a secure and spiritually healthy environment.

Bill Williams is a youth leader as well as the director of small groups within his local church, For more information on Christian dating online, free downloadable dating resources which include articles, reviews on the best Christian Dating Online sites, visit his blog All About Christian Dating Online

Note: If you find this Christian dating outline article useful, you may reprint it on your website, ezine, or in your newsletter as long as the credits above remain intact and the hyperlinks to All About Christian Dating Online stay active.

Copyright Bill Williams 2007 All About Christian Dating Online

She had been to a mini female five-year class reunion sort of cobbled together by the local girls who did not want to wait for the official ten-year reunion.

Ann was one year out of college now. She had to come from another city so she decided the next day to go back to the old school and just look around and perhaps see some former teachers. Mrs. Larkin was her favorite.

She sought her out right away. “Of course I remember you Ann. You were my star pupil. Both you and Jerry Cain. Oh my, speaking of Jerry I have something you should see. I was going to mail it to you. It is a letter to you from Jerry that one of the kids found in an old textbook. It is your old book Ann. The letter is very personal and I am sorry but I did read it and so did some students”.

Ann decided to wait until she was back at the motel to open the book. Ann got comfortable and opened the book. She then saw the note that had been pressed between the pages for five years. She read, “My dearest Ann: Thoughts of you hover over my mind like the mist over blue water, never leaving. How I long for your touch, you talking to me, your eyes upon me. I hunger to be with you every moment, basking in the warmth of your nearness and inhaling your scent that carries your being to my very soul. I ache to tell you of my feelings however I am terrified of rejection. I place my thoughts in this missive with great hopes you will allow me time with you. Time for you to understand the whole of me. God willing, the power of my deep love will attract you to me. If you do not respond to this note I shall evermore be silent. Jerry Cain.”

Ann was stunned. Why didn’t he flirt or make eye contact or do what boys do to let girls know. She went to the graduation year-book she brought with her. He was a nice looking boy. She would have gone out with him if he had just asked. How shy or intimidated he must have been. Ann had dated a lot and been in like but never in love.

She got on the phone. The third call to her reunion friend said Jerry was manager of a local major department store. Ann took a cab. Upon entering the large store she asked for the managers office. She took the elevator. She was an exercise freak and had been told many times she had not aged a bit, so she suspected she would be recognized by Jerry, but what about him? Maybe he was bald with a beer gut. Her plan was to just sneak a peek, hoping to see him without him seeing her, and then decide what to do.

What happened next was what she did not want, Jerry saw her first. There was a pleasant voice behind her, “I do believe I am seeing Ann Colter in front of me.” She turned to see Jerry, much the same with lots of hair and a flat stomach. She had to look and saw no wedding band. She also noticed he gave a quick glance at her hand. “My Jerry you startled me.” She started to say something like “What are you doing here?”, but she knew it was his question, plus he would see through the ruse.

“Ann, it looked as you were looking for someone or something, what a grand surprise, what exactly are you doing here?” “Damn”, she thought, now what do I say? “Well Jerry, several girls had a little reunion and I came down from Berkley. While I was here I visited our old teacher, Mrs. Larkin and she mentioned how you and I were her star pupils, so I thought I would drop by and say hello. Peggy Conley knew where you worked”.

Ann took a week off and stayed in town seeing Jerry every night. The last night she told him the whole story about finding the note after all these years. He was embarrassed a bit, but said his feelings were only stronger now. Ann said, with misty eyes, Jerry I have feelings for you that I did not know were possible. You are kind and romantic and all of the things I would create if I could create my life’s partner. If this is love, then I want more and more of you. . . . and . . . .Love Comes.

Don wants you to see his movie site, http://MotherFlicker.com and for several love stories and sexual positions and early man sex, http://LoveComes.com