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MY 'GIRL NEXT DOOR'
As a young dating couple in college we couldn't keep our hands off of each other…at least my hands were always looking to touch and caress that beautiful, cute little woman. My nickname for her has been “Cutiful.” She had an amazing ‘beauty' that was ‘cute' at the same time; five foot tall and packed with all kinds of sweetness, willingness, and innocence. When I first met her I was taken back by her openness and transparency. I could see that that quality was something other guys were taken aback by and desired as well as me. She wasn't like the other girls…primping for the next date. She liked climbing trees and was very much the ‘girl next door.' She reminded me of the song Alabama sings, “She don't know she's beautiful.” That song fit her to a tee.
One time we broke up because I wasn't real sure about the relationship. The next week that little woman had received fourteen requests by other guys for a date (some of them were my friends)…WOW! That blew me away, as you can imagine! Needless to say, I used every skill in the book to get this relationship back on track. And you know what? She responded so amazingly! She told me that she knew she loved me from the beginning and so, was willing to wait however long. Now, that was a young Christian woman who was walking with the Lord…willing to let Him lead and willing to wait. It was her walk with the Lord that attracted me to Him. I've said from the beginning of knowing her that she, in many ways, was a part of my salvation experience. I saw a love in her that was both disarming and attractive. I saw Jesus!
So it was, with that beginning, that we grew closer and closer together. We had our moments, to be sure, because we are VERY different from each other. Yet, there was a magnetic pull for both of us that we couldn't deny. It was a pull that made it extremely hard to keep our focus on anything else. When we were apart for the summers, or even for the weekend, it was very difficult. When we would make trips to see each other they were full of hugging and kissing. It was all we could do to manage the petting. She had never really dated anyone seriously at all and so she was not only a sweet and innocent girl, but physical affection was very new to her as well.
It made her kisses the sweetest I'd ever known! Those kisses seemed like honey…so innocent…so genuine. Once, during college, she came to visit my family. As we sat alone on the couch I asked her if I could touch her breasts. She didn't get upset like I thought she might. She thought about it for a bit, and then looked up at me with the sweetest smile I'd ever seen and said, “Yes, you can.” When I touched them I cannot put into words the tenderness…the gentleness I felt from her. She had the look of an angel on her face. It was an expression of willingness to commit to each other that didn't need any words to make it clear how we felt about each other.
The beautiful thing about all of our time spent together before our marriage was that, even though we were very physically affectionate, we always were able to control the momentum that was building because we respected and loved each other soooo deeply.
We knew that the Lord had brought us together; there was no doubt about that. In fact, it was the knowledge that He had put us together that made our love feel so secure, so fun, and so much of an adventure! That young girl would grow into becoming a wife like none other. She became a mother that every child dreams about having. My invalid mother would rather have had her caring for her than anyone, because of her sweet love. She is more beautiful today than ever because she loves the Lord with all of her heart. It is because of her deep love for Him that makes her able to love me, her children, grandchildren and everyone whom she touches.
She's my “Girl Next Door!”
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