Love Endures, Phoenix (Love Endures, #1) by Michelle Stevens

Author:Michelle Stevens
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: spiritual, grief, 1980, phoenix, christian romance, inspiring romance, michelle stevens

Smell the Roses

The small group I had attended for the last month was becoming an important part of my life. Even though we all had vastly different personalities, I cared about each individual there. There were two women in particular that I had a deep connection with.

Becki was younger than the rest. She was attractive with her straight brown hair and doe-like eyes. She and her husband married at the age of eighteen and already had their first child. Becki looked at the world through the veil of the young and untried. It was refreshing to my soul.

Rebecca was closer to my age and had two children by two different fathers. Her short Dorothy Hamill haircut fit her no-nonsense personality. From what I picked up in conversations during group discussion, her first marriage had ended in divorce. What attracted me to Rebecca was her in-your-face honesty. She wasn’t one to mince words, so I always knew where I stood with her.

The three of us decided to meet once a month at Rebecca’s home for an hour of worship. I wasn’t sure what to expect the first day I arrived. “Do you girls have a preference on music?” Rebecca asked. Both Becki and I shrugged our shoulders. “Great, because I already had one picked out.” She put on a CD called Praise 12 He Is Able. “It has one of my favorite songs,” she said with an uncharacteristic grin.

Once the music began playing I sat down, but I noticed both Becki and Rebecca remained standing with their eyes closed. Rebecca began swaying to the music while Becki stood stalk-still with a sweet smile on her face. I stood up and closed my eyes. I soon found myself swaying like Rebecca. Worship was like meditation for me. Listening to the lyrics brought me into a place of being aware of God’s voice.

The first song, I simply sang to God. During the second song, the words brought tears to my eyes, and then came the song, “Lord of Love”; that particular song brought me to my knees. The lyrics and gentle rhythm felt exactly like a love song. It expressed my deep passion for God and was somehow mixed with my love for Scott and my profound love for Jonathan into an exquisite tangle of pure adoration. I could barely breathe from the emotions it birthed in me. After the song ended, I felt completely spent and sat in a kneeling position on the floor.

The warmness of God’s presence filled my mind and seemed to root out the hatred I held for the man responsible for Scott’s death. A chill ran down my spine as a vision came to me. My hatred appeared as a black twisted mass of thorny vines weaving together around my heart, actively choking it. My heart was wounded and bleeding from the assault.

I got up and ran to the bathroom, trying to block the image from my mind. I sat on the edge of the bathtub, rocking back and forth in an attempt to calm myself down.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.