Every year, it never fails. This is the certain time that I think about the foundation my first love set.

When choosing to embark in a new relationship or rekindling an old, the people who I allow to enter into my life know of him.

It doesn’t matter where I am or who I am with. I find myself thinking about the impact he made on my view of love.

He showed me how I should be loved.

Though I don’t remember our first date, I enjoy thinking about our conversations in his car. At the time, I wasn’t familiar with driving, so he would take me to school. I always looked forward to our car rides; they were absolutely the best!

Every morning, he would kindly walk me to the passenger side, open the car door, and allow me to get inside the vehicle. After closing my door, I would eagerly wait for him to get inside the driver’s side of the car and we would race. Yes, we raced and I must say he was a tough competitor!

We had a seat belt challenge each morning before taking off to our destination. Whoever put their seatbelts on the fastest would win. There was never a grand prize, but let’s just say I hold the current title of “Fastest Seatbelt Clicker”!

At the end of each race, we would laugh, laugh, and laugh! Back and forth we would yell “I won!” “No, I won!” Often times, we would be so caught up in the moment we didn’t realize our tones. We were freely filled with total bliss. Eventually, he would pull off to take me to school.

On the way to school, we would listen to music, talk about what’s going on in life, classwork, relationships, and things of the future. I will always admire how he would intentionally listen to me, never once interrupting.

As I think about it now, he was setting the tone for me to be fully free while opening up and sharing my feelings.

Smart guy.

Then, we stopped seeing each other eye to eye.

Like in any relationship, we started to not agree on every topic. The older we became it felt like our opinions were indifferent and hardly aligned. He would give me great advice, but I wanted to experience life my own way. I felt I needed to make my own mistakes in order to learn how to move forward in life. Because of this, the different views caused a wedge in our relationship. Looking back, I should have listened.

Especially, in the topic of love!

Later in life, I learned my first love has a gift of discernment. He can easily spot out a “good decision” from a “bad decision ”. Any time he gives his honest opinion about someone or some thing he is more than likely right!

He has an unique saying that goes something like this: “There are consequences for every action you make. Good or bad.”

As I continue to reveal my journey, you will learn that I hardly chose wisely. 😳

But, his love never changes for me!

Recently, I had a morning filled with nostalgia.

On a particular day, I decided to snooze in for a bit longer than expected. Once I realized the time, I thought “I’m going to be late for work!” Hurriedly, I took care of my personal hygiene, grabbed my lunch bag, and headed out the front door to get in my car. As I opened the garage door, I noticed the unthinkable: it was icy outside; there was a thick surface of ice covering my windshield.

In a brief moment, I became agitated and decided to put my belongings in my car. Then, I proceeded to start my car and turn on the defrost for my windows.

Since I was running late, I decided to go back inside the garage to get an ice scraper. As I turned in the direction of the house, to my surprise, I see him. My dad. He is moving toward my car with an ice scraper in his hand. He’s not wearing a coat or jacket, just shorts, a t-shirt, and sandals. While he swiftly moves past me, he began to scrape the ice off my windshield.

Because he had been fighting a cold and I care about his health, I told him, “Daddy, you don’t have to do that.” He ignores my plea and continues to go to the rest of the windows. Sometimes, I guess he doesn’t always choose wisely.

After he finishes, I tell him thank you, get inside my car, and started to back out the driveway. As I drove off, I was immediately reminded of our conversations in the car. I smiled and silently said to myself, “That’s how I will love. ”

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Love Nuggets!

Rather we may be dating, engaged, married, or living our best lives as singles, we were all created to love!

One of my favorite scriptures about love is found in 1 Corinthians 13. It gives the best example on how we should love.

“Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.”

Can we say this is how we show love to the ones we love?

During this season, many of us may find ourselves caught up in the benefits of love. The feelings of entitlement to obtain certain desires may simply cloud our focus on the meaning of love.

Rather we gained insightful knowledge or we endured hard lessons from our first love, let’s challenge ourselves to allow God to reveal and heal all areas in the way we love.

Love is no fairytale!

By choosing to depend on God, He will restore and revive our hearts. Let’s choose to invite Him in today!

What’s one thing your first love taught you? Feel free to comment below and empower others!

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