Your Favorite Romantic Blog Post – June – Aug, 2010

Shannon here: Drumroll please! Your favorite post originally ran Aug 30. My critique partner and Revell debut author, Lorna Seilstad. And I didn’t rig it. I chose winners strickly from how many unique visitors visited each post, so you chose the winner, I didn’t. Leave a comment by Sept 25, 8:00 PM Central for a chance to win a copy of White Roses. Here’s Lorna:

How I met my spouse:

            “And then, when you are ready, I’ll surprise you with a love far more wonderful than any you would ever dream.  You see, until you are ready, I am working even now, this minute, to have you both ready at the same time . . . . but, until you are satisfied exclusively with Me and with the life I have  prepared for you, you will not be able to experience the love that exemplifies your relationship with Me which is perfect love….Know that I love you always; I am God Almighty.”

            The quote above was a portion of “On HIs Plan for Your Mate” and the author is unknown.  (You can find the whole narrative here http://www.majesty.org/tract/mate.html.) I had this letter hanging in my bedroom all of my teenage and college years. I’d read it often, sometimes tearfully, when I worried what if I never met the right person.

            The night before I left Iowa for my senior year at Lubbock Christian College in Texas, a very tall man named David came to visit our congregation on a Sunday night. He told us he was moving to the area.

            Several of the couples, including my parents, took the young man out for dinner. I went along as well. We sat at a long table—I on one end and David on the other. The young man, about five years older than me, spoke about his life—how he had left North Dakota to teach agriculture in Thailand through a 4-H program, how he’d become a Christian in Thailand and had been baptized in the shallow end of a pool, and how he’d missed the Midwest and took a job in the seed industry. As he spoke, I knew something with a certainty that scared me to death. This was the man I was going to marry.

            It wasn’t love at first sight. It was a knowing. I’d prayed for a husband like this and God had brought him to me. Why else would someone leave working at the National 4-H Center in Washington, D.C., and end up in my little corner of the world if it wasn’t God’s plan?

As I said, I was scared to death. I didn’t tell a soul—even my best friend—what I felt. Instead, I wrote, “Today I met the man I’m going to marry” in my diary and left for college.

Meanwhile, back at home, my parents took David in. After all, the North Dakota farm boy needed an adopted family. They had him over for Sunday dinners. He helped put up hay and my mother doted on him.

Back in Texas, my best friend (the preacher’s daughter) constantly relayed plugs from her own mother on David’s behalf. My friend encouraged me to go home and flirt with him. I still didn’t tell her what I knew. Besides, she and I both knew I was terrible at flirting.  She, on the other hand, had it down to an art.

Three weeks after I returned home at the end of the year, David asked me out on a Sunday night after services. We saw “Coming to America.” He told me later he asked me out because my mom was such a neat person and he’d always heard girls turn out to be like their mothers. He thought he’d take a chance and find out.

About Lorna: Lorna Seilstad has called Iowa home her whole life. She received her B.S. in education from Lubbock Christian Univerity. After her first child was born, she quit teaching and became a professional wiper. “I wiped noses, tears, skinned knees, baby’s bottoms, and countertops every day. But at naptime, I wrote.” Today, she writes historical fiction with a generous dash of humor.

Come back next week:

Sept. 27 – Love Inspired author, Lyn Cote shares her real life romance and a book giveaway.

Sept. 28 – Links to your top ten posts from June – August.

Sept. 29 – Aspiring author, Lisa Collins shares her real life romance.

Oct 1 – Aspiring author, Casey Herringshaw’s romantic interview.