Looking For Love In All The Wrong Places

Have you ever heard the song~ “Looking For Love In All The Wrong Places”?..... 
In the 80’s, we lived in a small, ranch style home from my 6th grade year through college~ you know~ the formative, boy crazy years, at least for me. My mom had this neat, strategically placed desk in the central room of that home. Easy access, because on that desk was our telephone. Not a cell phone. An old school, rotary dial, cord attached telephone. I used to live for the sound of that phone. Dreamily laying on the floor listening to “Just You and I”, anticipating the excitement of the ring. It was always the same~ me talking to my boyfriend, my brother yelling at me to get off so he could use it or my dad saying~ “someone might be trying to call, you’ve been on there long enough”. It had a super long, spiral cord attached to the receiver and I would stretch it around the corner and down the hall as far as I could in order to have more privacy. But then, that boy broke my heart. Laying on the floor listening to “I’m all out of love, I’m so lost without you”, the phone would ring and, knowing it wasn’t for me, I just cried harder. Of course this happened more than once during the years we lived in that house. Always excited for the call or sad over the lack of one, until I got a call from a certain boy. THE CALL that ended all the other calls but was the beginning of a lifetime of love that only gets stronger and stronger every day. 
Just like that skinny, insecure, adolescent girl looking for love, there are times even now that she resurfaces. Not with boys, but with other things that call out to me. When I’m having a bad day or week or even month, there are times that my flesh looks for love and comfort everywhere except for “The Where” I should be looking. I’m a junk food junkie from way back and there are times (too many to count) I reach for food to comfort me. Or I drown my sorrows on binge TV and try to get lost in a show to remove my mind from my present state. There are times I sit and scroll. And scroll. And scroll. And after an hour of pinning too many decadent dessert recipes or house interiors I wish were mine or hair ideas, exercise routines and articles on being a better wife or mother, I don’t feel any better. I don’t feel better after the comfort food or the TV shows either. Maybe in the moment I do, after the first three or four Mallo Cups or an entire bag of Lays potato chips, but when that moment is gone, so is the feeling. And I’m still sad. And my Father is saying, “get off of all that. I’m calling out to you but I can’t get through because you are looking for love in all the wrong places”. Why does it take me so long to realize it’s THE CALL? The one that changes everything. And if I’ll just go down the hall and get alone with Him on a daily basis, His love only grows stronger and stronger. It’s life changing and the more time I spend with Him, the more I realize how silly I was to convince myself that these other things could ever answer my heart’s call. 
My friend, the only One that can fill your heart’s void is your Heavenly Father. There is nothing this world has to offer that can replace Him. Answer that call today. His call. The excitement and anticipation of talking to your Savior cannot compare to anything else. I guarantee “Just You and I” will take on a whole new meaning and your life will forever be changed.
Matthew 6:33
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