We all know one. Hey, you might even be one. You know, the girls that are head over heels in love, telling the world they’ve finally found “the one”, with social media accounts full of cute candids and love quotes… and then all of a sudden, it’s over. No explanation, no more pictures, and probably a whole new set of subliminal quotes about “not settling” and “finding yourself before you find someone else”. But not to worry, because within a few months, there’s another “knight in shining armor” waiting to fill the void that the last one left.

Sound familiar? That was me, for years. I was what I like to call, a professional relationship jumper. I went through a series of long relationships and broken seasons, until the day I finally decided to practice what I always preached to others. But before we get there, lets rewind a little bit. If you’ve read An Open Letter to My First Love, you know I got involved in a relationship very early as a teen, which lasted about seven years. After that, I was sure the next person I was going to be with would be nothing like the last. I mean, polar opposite. So, instead of allowing myself the time to heal, mature, and take care of the issues that were rooted in ME, I started looking for someone to fill in all of the gaps that the last person was missing. He liked hip-hop? I need someone who only listens to gospel. He loved football and basketball? I want someone who isn’t caught up and so obsessed with sports (because his hobbies were CLEARLY the root of our issues….ooookay). And then when that one didn’t work out, I’d look for someone else who was nothing like him. So on, and so forth (I know, you’d think it wouldn’t take long to figure it out, right? Wrong).

You see, the issue wasn’t in every guy I decided was better than the last one (and believe me, its easy to convince yourself that it is). The real issue was ME. And wanting validation from everyone and everything except the One who I needed it from most. After years of dysfunction, you tend to be left with some holes inside of you that you might not know exactly how to make sense of.  Instead of turning to God to fill those holes and asking Him to mold me into the woman of God I was called to be, I decided that I knew what was best for my life and that I could fill them myself. Wrong again. Unbeknownst to myself at the time, is what I now see was bondage. I was in bondage to people, habits, and a lifestyle that God never told me to be a part of. And that wouldn’t be fixed by trying to find a more godly man, it would happen when I would decide to submit to God and become a godly woman.

When it comes to relationships, I know some of you think to yourself, “God, what is taking You so long?!”. I encourage to get rid of that mindset, like, NOW. Because 1) God doesn’t submit to you, you submit to Him, and 2) It will leave you attaching yourself to people and things out of your impatience, and in the long run, you end up hurting not only yourself, but others. I didn’t even make mention to the soul-ties that you create when you intimately involve yourself with multiple people, and that’s an entire post on its own, but rest assured, relationship jumping is NOT the answer.

If you’re in a relationship that you jumped into knowing good and well it was out of a void, or a need for validation, understand that it is out of love when I say, get out of it. You are worth more, and deep down, I think you know it. We should be more focused on becoming the right one, than finding the right one. Trust me, God’s got that latter part under control, but you might miss His blessings for you while you’re off attaching yourself to someone else’s.  Let’s get US under control before creating an entangled web that we can’t get out of. Listen to me: Every void you have, every broken piece inside of you, and every bit of baggage, can be mended through Jesus Christ and the Word of God. If you do not know your worth in Him, I can guarantee that you don’t truly know your worth at all. You may have a vague idea, but when you start digging deeper into that, you will not allow just anyone to come into your space and dwell in your temple because you know that you are royalty. And you will not take up space in anyone else’s life knowing that God is still doing major damage control inside of you.  We need to get back to the basics, remove the distractions, and seek God the way that you’ve been seeking validation from people.

Psalm 37:3-4 Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

2 Peter 3:8-9 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

Isaiah 55:8-9 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.