By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer
Chocolate and flowers abound in February because it’s the love month and romance is in the air. Greeting-card companies, candy manufacturers, and florists attribute much of their business to this short-on-days, long-on-love month.
However, it takes more than candy and flowers to make a good romance.
As a romance writer, February isn’t the only month I have love on the brain. I watch the Hallmark Channel all year long because I know I can find a romantic story there with a happy ending.
Happy endings are what qualify romance as romance and not simply love stories like Romeo and Juliet and the 1970 tear-jerker, Love Story.
However, many real-life people think they have the happy-ending equation figured out, and they spend their lives (and several broken relationships) trying to make their equation work:
Perfect + Perfect = Happy
Even Cupid’s arrow wouldn’t hit the mark with this philosophy.
In a well-written romance, the hero and heroine are not perfect people. They are flawed and they spend the majority of the story discovering that they love each other in spite of those flaws.
News flash: There is not a “perfect” man anywhere who is not flawed. Husband, boyfriend, son, father, brother—every single one of them carries wounds.
Women deal with the same condition, regardless of how much makeup is applied. We’re wounded, flawed, imperfect people.
A couple thousand years ago, the only Perfect Person to walk the planet stepped out of unapproachable light with His arms opened wide, headed straight for us. Jesus loves us beyond what we can imagine, and He always will.
So here’s my Valentine’s Day advice: If you are looking for a perfect someone, focus on Jesus. He will help you find the flawed person who is perfect for you and your flaws.
If you already have a special someone who is anything but perfect, Jesus will help you love that person in spite of his or her flaws—and yours.
Because it’s the flaws and how we deal with them that make a good romance.
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“The Wrangler’s Woman” – the story of two imperfect people who discover they are a perfect match. The Cowboy’s Bride collection, nine novellas of love in the Old West.
“He who is without sin, cast the first stone” Jesus said. He knows we are all sinners, far from perfect. That’s why He came to earth. We need to follow His command to Love One Another.
So true, Karen.