Romantic Songs

So I've had a lot on my mind lately; been agonizing with the idea of romance. Some relationships happen with abandon, loving with abandon, being together with abandon. And others seem to get lost and fixated on figuring out the mechanics of how to first get the "right" person and then make that person happy. I am afraid of losing myself to that kind of relationship. I don't want to be willing to settle for someone who I'm not crazy about or who isn't crazy about me. But as with all important things in life, it's hard. I think God knows what I've been preoccupied with because these are two songs that stood out to me from the radio this week. I'm not normally a hopeless romantic, in any sense of those words. I am normally the voice of reason and sanity for the women in my life. But these songs just felt like Jesus' affirmation for me that he has made me just the way I am, and a big part of being me is never wanting to settle. I am always willing to wait for the big one, for the brighter dawn just the other side of the horizon. But it's never that poetic when you are doing the waiting. It's cold and dark and lonely, and you often take yourself down the path of self-doubt and for me I begin to listen to the church ladies in my head who say things like: "Well, HE's got a good job, he can provide for you." Or "He'll make a nice dad for some nice-looking kids." Lord Jesus, thank you that I have never dreamed of having nice-looking kids. Help me to stay in a place of knowing who I am and the irrepressible love I need. I want you and the beauty you make in the midst of the messiness. Your redemption was always the most attractive to me, not when you were saving me from horrible sins, but the next frame of the lens when hope burst forth, and I saw the redeemed future you have prepared for little me. I want sunshine and laughter, the inability to think of anyone else and a total trust in your romance of my soul. El Shaddai, I hear you...

Randy Travis - Deeper Than The Holler
Well I've heard those city singers singin
'bout how they can love
Deeper than the oceans
higher than the stars above

Well I come from the country and I know I ain't seen it all
But I heard that oceans salty and the stars they sometimes fall
But that would not do justice to the way I feel for you
So I have to sing this song about all the things I knew

My love is deeper that the holler, stronger than the rivers
Higher than the pine trees growin' tall upon the hill
My love is purer than the snowflakes that fall in late December
And honest as a robin on a springtime window sill
And longer than the song of the Whippoorwill

From the backroads to the broadway shows with a million miles between
There's a least a million love songs that people love to sing
And everyone is different and everyone's the same
So this is just another way of sayin' the same thing

My love is deeper that the holler, stronger than the rivers
Higher than the pine trees growin' tall upon the hill
My love is purer than the snowflakes that fall in late December
And honest as a robin on a springtime window sill
And longer than the song of the Whippoorwill

My love is deeper that the holler, stronger than the rivers
Higher than the pine trees growin' tall upon the hill
My love is purer than the snowflakes that fall in late December
And honest as a robin on a springtime window sill
And longer than the song of the Whippoorwill

Kenny Rogers- Buy me a Rose
He works hard to give her all he thinks she wants
A three car garage, her own credit cards
He pulls in late to wake her up with a kiss good night
If he could only read her mind, she’d say:

Buy me a rose, call me from work
Open a door for me, what would it hurt
Show me you love me by the look in your eyes
These are the little things I need the most in my life

Now the days have grown to years of feeling all alone
And she can’t help but wonder what she’s doing wrong
Cause lately she’d try anything to turn his head
Would it make a difference if she said:

Buy me a rose, call me from work
Open a door for me, what would it hurt
Show me you love me by the look in your eyes
These are the little things I need the most in my life

And the more that he lives the less that he tries
To show her the love that he hold inside
And the more that she gives the more that he sees
This is a story of you and me
So I bought you a rose on the way home from work
Opened the door to a heart that I hurt
And I hope you notice this look in my eyes
Cause I’m gonna make things right
I’m gonna hold you tonight
Do all those little things
For the rest of your life.