So much can be said about online dating. Technology has taken over our lives and social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace have mushroomed practically overnight. But regardless of whether we meet someone in person, through Facebook or on an internet dating site, some topics remain constant. One is our innate desire for a fairy tale romance. And even guys can get into the happily-ever- after theme.
Our internet dating story proves that fairy tales do come true. You know the kind that only happens in the movies, but never in real life? The type of story I could only dream about with an intense conviction and a deep, unexplained yearning. Don’t most of us? Our story defies everyone who ever told me I was an idealistic, unrealistic dreamer. This IS the fairy tale, happily-ever-after story of love and marriage between two soul mates absolutely made for one another. And I’m not just saying that because it’s my story. Other people have kindly pointed it out to me.
Maybe we need permission to believe in that fairy tale kind of love and marriage. What we subconsciously are convinced of and yet desperately hope to be true can be, in fact, a reality. So, I’m saying it here. Believe it. Have faith that this kind of heady, in-the-movies romance exists and always has, even in spite of our out-of-control divorce rate. It’s not only a possibility, it is a reality. God created it to be that way.
I realize that technically I’m still a newlywed with only a couple of years to my fairy tale credit. You might easily dismiss what I’m saying with a shrug and a wave of your hand, and some comment like “Wait until the honeymoon is over.” But, just for the record, let me assure you that our “honeymoon” ended as soon as we stepped off the plane into the arms of our waiting children; settled into a rental house full of mold that made me chronically ill; tackled step-parenting issues, and talked about finances for the first time. The first two years of married life could easily be classified as one of the most difficult seasons of both our lives. Yes, even including both of the years I went through divorces and the year my family lost everything we owned, not to mention the devastating year Brendan lost his first wife and was left caring for three young children. But, every good story has a climax of impossible conflicts that confines us to the edge of our seat with breath holding anticipation of the resolution. Ours is no different.
And, I believe in miracles. Yes, I believe God is still all about raising-the-dead kind of miracles, but the kind I’m talking about here are the everyday things that really don’t make sense, and shouldn’t happen, but do anyway. Some people call them coincidence, but these “God things” are really just too coincidental and leave us marveling in a perplexed kind of awe. That is what fairy tales are made of, and that is what our story is about–the one that began on a Christian internet dating site a few years ago.
Laura Bennet - Author 