Wednesday, 24 September 2008

  • Relationships: The Knight in Shining Armor...Can I Be the Steed?

    Guest post submitted by NotOfHereButForHere

    knight-in-shining-armour

    I don't know about anyone else, but I know what the biggest weakness is in my life:  Girls.

    I've left a fairly broken and dusty trail of ruined dating relationships behind me.  I don't know why, I may never know, but I am willing to accept that most of them were my fault.  I was talking with a friend about them today, and my current difficulty, and a line came out that I just really liked. 

    See, currently, there are 2 girls I'm having trouble with.  One of them is an ex-girlfriend from high school, my first serious relationship.  I was really, really foolish back then, and it was definitely not a relationship that was based in God.  However, I did my best to be the best boyfriend I could, and apparently that affected her a lot. Whether I was a good boyfriend or not is not the point of this story.  I am in no way bragging or trying to show off. 

    The second girl is a friend of mine who has drastic self-esteem issues when it comes to boys.  A year ago, she and her father had a major fight, and she felt worthless.  She asked me to take her on a date so that she should feel special, even though we both knew that there were no "feelings" involved.  I obliged, and did the best I could to be a good date.

    The result of these two fiascoes is that now there are 2 girls who choose to use me as a rubric of sorts for boyfriends/dates.

    This is wrong!!

    I am a man, flawed like all other men.

    I always hear girls talk about their "knight in shining armor", the brave man that saves the day and looks good doing it.  (this may be a bit outdated, but hey, I'm a traditionalist).  I will never be that man.  Ever.  No man can.

    So these two girls, who see me as their ideal for what this knight in shining armor should look like.  But my armor is tarnished and broken, it doesn't shine, it's blackened from failures and stumbles.

    The One that they should look to to save them, the Man who has the perfect shining armor, who can hold them and keep them from danger, is Christ.

    Christ is the one that they should compare their boyfriends to.  He is the only one who can really love them in the way that they are meant to be loved.

    So where is the man in all of this, where is the boyfriend, if not the man who saves the day?

    He should be the horse, the brave steed, who carries Christ in his heart.

    I am not worthy of being an ideal, I am too flawed, too sinful.  But Christ, who lived and loved a perfect life, is. 

    You should not look for the man who is most like the ideal boyfriend, who does and says all the right things. You should strive to find a man who carries Christ like the valiant steed.  There are no stories written for the horse, because the Rider is so grand, so great, the horse needs no acclaim. 

    I want to be the steed, doing the work that the Rider needs, glorifying Him as I do.

    What qualities/characteristics do you look for in a potential mate?

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