Cupidity...

Books are like children to me. I hold them in my hand, keep a vigilant eye on them, and take them with me wherever I go. So when people tell me I have to read a book, it makes me feel like their thrusting their misbehaved, raggedy lookin' child on me and asking me to baby-sit. Eerrrrt! Stop, please.

But after Is Coffee A Date vlog, I began some fun banter via Twitter with Michael DiMarco and discovered a whole world of conflicting ideas. (Yes, my life feels like kittylitter in the dog bowl... completely out of place.)

Michael and Haley DiMarco are authors of several books, including their recent book on relationships, Cupidity: 50 stupid things people do for love. I have been swapped with work and speaking engagements so I haven't been reading like I usually like to, but as I packed for Mexico, I grabbed my thin, fair-skinned child and started reading immediately.

This relationship book is 245 pages, but it reads like a diary or a conversation with friends [if your friends are witty and slightly sarcastic]. It was such an easy read, I finished it in two days. What I love most about the book is that it's true. And if you know me, I read books to uncover their faults, so this was interesting.

For example, they spent some time on the different needs of a man and woman from pre-historic times [which included a sketch of a caveman named Grog]. Here's the breakdown in basic terms:

Women:

1. Protector: A man who gives me protection from nature and other cavemen. [Word!]
2. Provider: A man who provides cave, fur, food and base companionship. [Ummhmm!]
3. Enhancer: A man who offers me a chance to nest, hang furs and finger paint. [Amen!]
4. Romancer: A man who listens to me and dances with me under the moonlight. [Preach it!]

Men:

1. Bedmate: A woman who gives me warmth and continues my bloodline.
2. Helpmate: A woman who cooks the kill and feeds the babies.
3. Playmate: A woman who has tickle fights and plays pin-the-tail-on-the-mammoth with me.
4. Soulmate: A woman who shares my thoughts and dreams and works to invent the wheel.

To some, this is information you already know and basic. In fact, the book is so simple it's enlightening. With each turned page, the callous walls of my heart began to soften as I realized how many mistakes I've made in previous relationships.... and, if I'm honest with you, in my current relationship.

Married or single, this book is a quick, easy read that has great readability for both men and women. To order the book, click here.

MY PERSONAL DATA COMPLIATION:

Women: How important is romance to you? Do you pay for dates? Does your date open your car door? Married folk: Are you happy with your sexlife? Is the man the spiritual leader in your house? Do you allow him to be?

Men: How important is silence to you? Do you like to talk about everything? What's the first thing that attracts you to a women? Married folk: Are you happy with your sexlife? Are you the spiritual leader? What's something you'd change about your wife?

As always, you can answer anonymously :)

haute couture...

In order to be irreplaceable, one must be different--Coco Chanel

It called to me from the coffe table like a Siren at sea. It was if I heard intoxicating songs about French fashion with a Parisian accent as I lifted up the most recent edition of the holy grain of fashion. Yes, it was if Jean Paul Gaultier himself lured me to sea only to die from desire. I flipped through fashion magazines and drooled over dresses that I foolishly believed were going to make me a haute couture woman who spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on garments designed to tailor-fit my waist, hips, and [not so long] legs. The magazine documented waif-like woman on the Parisian runway who stopped and did a little turn on the catwalk... and I was undone! 

In that nanosecond I truly believed that if I put on that dress, I will be the envy of every woman and the desire of every man. Coco Chanel would applaud me and Christian Lacroix would nod at my fashion saavy decision to pair a vintage Valentino piece with a Balenciaga heel. I would bask in my prowess and pride and stand before the world because I had something no one else had: haute couture clothing. A one-of-kind, hand-sewn, pain-stakingly difficult garment made through the blood, sweat, and tears of a little Italian woman hunkered over a pile of priceless material and thread. 

I shut the magazine and I was convicted. The one letter boldly printed on the cover stared back at me in silence as if letting me know W stood for Wanton or Wishing,  but definitely not Wisdom. I'm not a fashionista, I'm not a wealthy heiress, or socialite. But I realized something profound in the glossy pages of a fashion magazine: I am a haute couture woman. I have a one-of-a-kind Savior who has tailor-fit to my soul and has pain-stakingly created a piece of art through blood (Matthew 26:28), sweat (Luke 22:43), and tears (John 11:35). By the avant-garde holes in His wrists and pierced side, He has designed a robe of righteousness for me that no one else could create for me. Yes, I love adorning the exterior, but more importantly than any robe I can put on,  is the fact that the Creator of the Universe lives inside of me. Therefore I am and heiress; an heiress to the kingdom of God (James 2:5). 

Today I will walk down the catwalk of Life sharing my haute couture relationship with my Savior. And if I'm feeling up to it, I may just do a little turn on the catwalk. Why not?