"God said, Let Us [Father, Son, and Holy Spirit] make mankind in Our image, after Our likeness."  (Genesis 1:26)

My sister (Estonian) finally... after 7 months of waiting... got her wife-visa and in 2 days she had her ticket and flew back home to her beloved husband (American).  Mae and Jon are on the first pic above.  I think it is so amazing how the Lord leads two people together!  I can't find the verse that I was looking for... but it says something like: it is a mystery how a man finds his way into a maiden's heart... and I think it is.  There are so many wonderful people around us... but there is just the one who is truly right for us... only one who is one with our soul.  It really is the only way to be married - to the one whom the Lord has especially designed and crafted for us.  I believe that just like the Word says that there is NO way that we will ever (during this life) be able to get to know the Lord fully and understand Him fully... it is the same with the person the Lord has for us.  We will never get enough of learning to know him/her.  There is always the new excitement of finding out new things about that one special person... new excitement of growing more together... new excitement of doing things together... the excitement of being one with him/her.  There is this security of knowing the person next to us... and at the same time the excitement of finding out more all the time!  Wow!  It is amazing how perfect the Lord has designed everything.

This made me think how far men and women who do not know the Lord have actually moved from men being truly masculine and women being truly feminine.  I think the only way to find our way back to true masculinity and true femininity is through truly learning to know the Lord.  He said in Genesis 1:26 that He created us in His image, in His likeness.  Only He knows what is true masculinity and what is true femininity.  Although the world has moved so far from those roles, we all have the innate desire and longing - men for feminine women and women for masculine men.  What we see all around us are women who are becoming more and more masculine by putting their careers ahead of their husbands and children, boozing sometimes even more than men, smoking...  And men are becoming more and more vain, concentrating so much on their looks and beauty routines...  "Self" has become the center of our lives... without us even realizing that this makes us only more and more miserable.  

I have watched those women who truly know their God.  It is so amazing to me that those women actually become more beautiful with age... not only on the inside but also on the outside.  Something is added to them that they did not have in their youth.  I think it is the true intimacy with God and the resulting true femininity.  They are so beautiful and radiant, so strong on the inside and yet so gentle and vulnerable.  Often those women have also developed successful careers or ministries but not at the expense of their marriage and family.  And what I've noticed that their husbands are happy with them.  They are still in love with them.  Such women are my heroines!  :-)  Also the men who have learned to deeply know their Lord are truly masculine - strong on the inside and at the same time really daring to be gentle and vulnerable, treating their wives with love and respect and caring for their children...  Both, true masculinity and true femininity are God's image and character... and we have the innate longing for both.  When we as women lose our femininity, we lose our identity... we lose ourselves.  The same is with men.  When they lose their masculinity, they lose their identity. 

God tells us in Proverbs 3:5-8:  "Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding.  In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths.  Be not wise in your own eyes; reverently fear and worship the Lord and turn [entirely] away from evil.  It shall be health to your nerves and sinews, and marrow and moistening to your bones."  We think we know better what is good for us... but the truth is, God surely does know better.  God's Wisdom prolongs our days and it gives us lives worth living! 

The more we learn to know the Lord the more we learn to understand ourselves, the dreams and desires in our hearts.  The more we learn to know the Lord the more capable we become, the more able we become... the more we understand how much more is possible for us and available for us.  Proverbs 21:30 says that "there is no [human] wisdom or understanding or counsel [that can prevail] against the Lord."  God has got ALL the wisdom that there is.  He knows all.  He understands everything.  He has got all the answers.  Whatever we want to know, He already knows it and is ready to share it with us for James 1:5 promises: "If any of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask of the giving God [Who gives] to everyone liberally and ungrudgingly, without reproaching or faultfinding, and it will be given him."  ...though if we think we are more wise than God or we go to Him with a wrong attitude... the Lord says that "a scoffer seeks Wisdom in vain [for his very attitude blinds and deafens him to it], but knowledge is easy to him who [being teachable] understands."  (Prov. 14:6)  ...I guess this is one of the reasons some people boast of having read the Bible but finding nothing usable there.  Their attitude has made them completely blind to the wisdom.

Proverbs 29:18 says: "Where there is no vision [no redemptive revelation of God], the people perish."  ...we do not perish physically but we do perish emotionally and spiritually.  When we have no vision from God for our lives, when we have no deep revelation of the truth, we go downhill.  We might have all the wealth and power and great honor in people's eyes but if we have rejected God and His wisdom, we are dieing on the inside.  We do not know who we truly are.  We do not know where we are going.  We have no security.  We constantly feel that we have to fight for ourselves and prove ourselves.  We seek and we search but are not fulfilled nor whole.  And yet God knows the plans He has for us... He has put the very best ready for every single one of us.  Psalm 139:16 says: "Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in Your book all the days [of my life] were written before ever they took shape, when as yet there was none of them." 

I think it is so beautiful.  God loved us so much.  He created each of us so special, so unique.  He put special gifts and talents within us.  He put special dreams into our hearts.  He wrote down the plan for our lives... the flawless, perfect plan... a plan that would lead us straight to the good for us... to the one true love of our lives, to the dream job for us, to the dream home for us... He created us all to win!  He created us all to be successful!  But as this world is ruled by the devil (Ephesians 6:12), he is trying to get us out of the plan of God all the time.  This is his job.  But even when we stray, God's will for our lives never changes.  His will is still the same... and we can always find our way back to it... by seeking Him first and putting Him first in our lives.  When we learn to know Him better, we will find out His best for our lives and then we can just receive it from Him.

We were created in God's image and in His likeness.  He knows us the best.  When we learn to know Him intimately, we learn to know ourselves.  When we learn to know Him intimately, we can finally become all that He created us to be... which is the only thing that will give us complete fulfillment and contentment in this life.  Wow!  ...nothing missing, nothing broken!

If this article was helpful to You and You would like to share it with someone else, You are more than welcome to copy it.  But You are requested to add my name - Eve Juurik- and my website address - http://www.TheSpringOfLife.net - to the article.  All the material is copyrighted.  Thank You!

Many blessings & success to You,