Jacob and Rachel

I was doing some homework thismorning and my grandpa was listening to a Bible audio cassette. It was on Jacob and Rachel. I couldn't help but listen and as I listened I got drawn into to the story, even though I've heard it a dozen times or more.

Jacob was so in love with Rachel that he made a deal with her father Laban to work for him seven years in exchange for her hand in marriage. Can you imagine? Seven years of hard farm labor with your only payment being the woman you are madly in love with. Wow! Well, we all know the story, and it ends up that Jacob works fourteen years before he gets Rachel. Double wow! And not once during this time did he complain or get mad at Laban (which he had every right to) He was so in love with this woman he would do anything just to spend the rest of his life with her.

It got me thinking: could I do the same thing? Could I love someone enough to spend 14 years pursuing them? In our society nowadays it is all about falling in love and getting married right away. There is nothing wrong with that but what happens when the parents of either individuals suggest the couple wait a year to get counseling, get a steady income, etc? Usually the two go off and elope because they just can't wait.

I look forward to the day when I can approach the father of the woman I love. I would consider myself blessed if that man would test my maturity by asking me to wait a year and study scripture with him.

I want to say something to my male friends that may be reading this to think about. Can you be a Jacob? Can you wait patiently for the woman God has planned for you? Or, are you impatiently trying on women for size until one fits?

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. - 1 Corinthians 13:11

The same goes for my female friends: can you be a Rachel? Can you patiently wait for the man God has planned for you? Is the guy in your life willing to hold off on the romance and grow in maturity and get closer to God spiritually? Or, are you so absorbed in romantic crushes that you don't see the true man?

I say the measure of a man
Is not how tall you stand
How wealthy or intelligent you are
'Cause I've found out the measure of a man
God knows and understands
For He looks inside to the bottom of your heart
And what's in the heart defines
The measure of a man
- 4HIM "The Measure of a Man"