“O my Dove … let me see your face, let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely!” ~Song of Solomon 2.14
Thank you so much for reading, appreciating, and commenting on my post contents, especially those expressing my love for my Dove, Debbie [Song of Solomon 2.14; et. al.], and my public celebrations of our mutual love for one another.
What I post and what you read is just a public expression of what we carry on every day…all day long! We live daily in the environment and ambience of love: through all our ups and downs, stresses, tensions, trials, disagreements, setbacks, heartbreaks — “Let all that you do be done in love” [1 Corinthians 16.14]. “In good times, in bad times, I’ll be on your side forever more / Oh, that’s what friends are for…” (Dionne Warwick & Proverbs 17.17). And, we are friends!
1st John 3.18 teaches us that ‘true’ love is expressed “not…in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” And so, we exercise our love daily generously in both words and deeds. We’ll exchange a dozen or more “I love you!”(s) [along with ‘Please’ and ‘Thank You’] over the course of every day as we lovingly serve one another. Love itself is our ‘love language.’ We’ve found that it is really the most enjoyable way to live when compared to all the other options [Ephesians 4.31-32]. And, it is the way God has commanded us to live; and the same environment and ambience in which Christ, our Heavenly Bridegroom, conducts His love relationship with us [Isaiah 62.5; Zephaniah 3.16-17; et. al.].
Debbie and I have corresponded with one another this way from the inceptions of our relationship. In the beginning, we were just mutual friends with the same symbiotic interests; then, we became friendlier [with mutual respect, appreciation, and friendly affection for one another] in what we started calling our ‘buddies forever’ mode; until God began to ‘stir up and awaken love’ in our hearts for one another [Song of Solomon 2.7; 3.5; 8.4].
[ASIDE: And for me personally, it awoke in my heart as I preaching through 1 Corinthians 13 in the church I was pastoring—while also following Jonathan Edwards’s Charity and its Fruits. As I was expounding on love from that text, it awoke in me the realization: “Hey, this is what I think and feel toward Debbie!” But, the real ‘clincher’ for me was when I began to sense an intense jealousy that any other guy would get the privilege to love her as I wanted to… I wanted it to be me!]
But, back in those days, we corresponded and courted [as best we could over the 400 miles between us–she was in KY, and I in NC] by writing our sentiments to one another. We didn’t have email, text messages, or any of the other social media platforms. We had old-fashioned USPS letters and long-distance phone calls. And, back in those days, you paid dearly—by the minute—for your long-distance phone calls.
So, we wrote—a lot! Exchanging letters pretty much every day—back and forth. We still have boxes and boxes of the letters we wrote one another. A lot of it was just about our daily lives and activities: what we were doing, what we were thinking. That’s how we began sharing our hearts and lives with one another: our thoughts, values, life’s purposes and goals—and especially our common faith in Christ and desires to serve Him. We discovered, first, that we were ‘kindred spirits.’ And then, as our affections developed and our love began to awaken—we discovered and declared our love for one another—we wrote about our love.
And, I wrote a lot of poems and songs about her, for her, and to her. So, some of what I post is from those days.
Sometimes, I feel just a bit self-conscious posting my own content. I have said all I’ve said before just to say I’m really not trying to ‘show off’ or make myself look like I’m somebody other than who I am. Love is truly our daily language.
But, to further highlight why I post our love content from time to time, let me offer these motives:
- I want Debbie to know (again) I love her [Song of Solomon 1.15; 2.8-14; 4.1, 7; 8.6-7; et. al.].
- I want everyone else to know how worthy she is of my love [Song of Solomon 6.4-9; et. al.]
- And, most of all, I want to model Christ’s love for me—and us—and live as a public expression of His love as a Gospel witness to anyone who looks beyond our public conduct to see the spiritual signs and messages [Romans 4.31—5.1-2; 5.25-33; 1 Peter 3.7]
So, where I’m going with all this: some have asked for ‘other chapters’ of our love story, and I’m always glad to share a few other writings or posts I have dedicated to her. And, there are others—love songs I’ve written and sung to her over the years—that I would like to add, but haven’t yet … like:
- “You gave me a new song when you came to me…”
- “We two” which I wrote to celebrate our marriage
- and “If it’s love that you want, then you’ll never do without…”
Maybe I’ll get to those someday…
But if you are in the least interested, when you come here to my blog, look over in the right-hand column of ‘categories’ and look for ‘Debbie’ or ‘For Debbie’ or ‘Love songs.’ Click on those links, and they should open up the few I have written. [Most of them are repeated in the three categories or tags.]
Or, here are some direct links:
“SOMEONE LIKE NO ONE ELSE CAME ALONG AND MADE MY LIFE INTO SOMETHING THAT WOULD NEVER BE THE SAME!”
“COME SPRING” [A little fun-love-song…in anticipation of our marriage]
“THAT’S WHAT SHE LOOKS LIKE TO ME!”
“YOU’RE THE DAWN OF MY NEW DAY” [Song of Solomon 2.17 & 4.6]
“I LOVE YOU FOR LOVE’S SAKE” [Proposal/engagement celebration]
“WOW! THAT’S MY WIFE!”
“YOUR LOVE IS LIKE (NO, BETTER THAN) FINE WINE!”
“AND SHOW HER HONOR…” [1 Peter 3.7]
“NOT TOO LITTLE” (her self-published book: Story Retold by Deborah Parks / Illustrated by Grace Overbey Henderson)
For the love of God…and Debbie!
~Dave
~Dave Parks 