Watch Out for Mr. Perfect

Young ladies (or maybe I should just speak for myself here ;) tend to think about what their future husband will be like.  That's great!  - to some extent.  However, there is something we need to be sure to watch out for, and that is the mistaken picture that we often paint - that our husband will be Prince Charming, or our special Knight in Shining Armor, who will ride up on a brilliant horse, and carry us away into a romantic future full of perfect bliss.

It is a somewhat unrealistic picture, if you think about it.  Perfect bliss?

Here, on earth, in this imperfect, fallen world?  What are we thinking?

"The heart is deceitful above all things,

And desperately wicked;

Who can know it?"

Jeremiah 17:9  NKJV

This 'Prince Charming' will have a heart just like ours.  It is wicked and deceitful, just like ours.  Our Prince Charming, no matter how charming he will be, will still be human, and will still be imperfect.  No matter how well he protects us from the bad guys, he will still fail in certain areas.  He will still struggle, and he will still need God's help.

But that is okay.

We can't expect him to be all that God should be to us.  We can only expect perfection from God.

It would be unfair to expect him to be perfect, especially as no one is perfect besides Jesus.  We are not perfect!  Isn't that why young ladies feel that they want a Prince Charming?  Then their worlds will be set right... right?  But this expectation can be only placed on Christ.  He is the only one who will help us with our imperfection.

If we are waiting for a perfect man, we may as well forget it, otherwise we will be discontent for life.  Jesus is the only man who was ever perfect.

What we should expect is a man devoted to the Lord and following Him.  One who is devoted to God and who will be a devoted husband and leader.

Another way to look at it is this:

Once upon a time, there was a young lady who was waiting anxiously for a young man to arrive on the horizon and ask her Daddy to court her.  She waits for a year... and then another... and another... finally, her dream comes true and a young man arrives at the door, asking her Daddy about her.

"Does she love the Lord?" asks the young man.

"Yes," replies her Daddy.  "She displays that love often."

They talk a bit more.

The faults of the young man are revealed.  "I am not always patient," admits the young man.  "But, with the Lord's help, I know I will get better."

Daddy nods.  It comes out that the young lady struggles with trusting the Lord.

"Oh," says the young man with a wave of his hand.  "I can't marry her then.  That will ruin my dreams.  She must be as perfect as I can get."  He leaves without a backwards glance, off to find another, more perfect, girl.

Imagine you are in the place of the young lady.

It would be unreasonable for a young man to look for a perfect woman.  Yet, young women imagine perfect men.  Ridiculous!  That is not to say that we should settle for someone who has a lot of spiritual problems.  I'm just trying to point out that we should not have unreasonable expectations.  If we imagine our future husbands having just as many struggles as we have, then we probably have it just about right.

Pictures courtesy of google.images.com