Passion and Purity by Elisabeth Elliot

I finished this book, Passion and Purity by Elisabeth Elliot this past week. It’s basically a book on the topic of relationships, including everything from dating to marriage, in the light of the gospel of Christ and how it should look like when Christ leads the relationship. It was an okay read, but I do think I learned a lot from it. This book was about the story of how she met her first husband all the way to when they got married. Along the way she talks a lot about the trials that they went through, the things that they had to trust to the Lord, and the love that they had for each other. At some points in the book, in my mind I’m going “get married already, it’s taking forever!” But she is constantly talking about waiting on the Lord, waiting for when God would bring them together and not through their own desires.

I would recommend this to anyone who’s even thinking about a relationship. And for those of you who are already in one, read it too. haha. But then again, this is coming from a kid who’s never been in a relationship, so check it out for yourself.

I think there were a couple of things that stuck out to me in this book.

• Trust

They really trusted the Lord for all of their relationship. Honestly every single point in the relationship they offered up to the Lord on the altar of their lives. Both of them were set to be missionaries, and even though they were in love, neither of them were going to sacrifice their call for the relationship. And they didn’t even know if they were going to be missionaries at the same time, or whether or not they would even go to the same place. They just trusted the Lord. It’s something I really need to work on. Sometimes I wish I had a time machine where I could just press a couple of buttons and things would happen really quickly.

• Passion and Purity

Even though they loved each other and they wanted each other, in all meanings of the word, they were truly dedicated to each other. Jim slipped up and pissed her off but he made it clear that she was the only one for him. She inserted bits of his letters to her and we can see that he loved her deepyly and she the same to him. Though they wanted so badly to get married and be together they dedicated their lives to Christ. This meant that they would stay pure first and foremost to the Lord and his call for them in their lives. They would also stay pure to one another until their wedding day. And they would continue to stay pure to each other until their death. I think it was really good to be able to read about a relationship that truly was offered up to God in every single way. They trusted the Lord from beginning to the end.

I hope that I would one day meet that person that I would be able to love so deeply with a passion as if it were God Himself who loved her. I also hope that I would be able to stay strong in the Lord and trust him for all things. I pray for purity in all ways for the future, for when I meet her, for our relationship, and for the rest of my life. Purity for Christ and purity for her.

• Intentional

When the time comes and I do meet that person, I have to learn to get some guts to be intentional about it. Gotta pursue her like hot fire! and then even after things kick off gotta still pursue her with no less creativity than Michelangelo. It’s definitely encouraged myself to also be intentional about making myself into the man of God that would be an unworthy offering to Him and also to whoever God has in mind for me in the future. MAN UP WILL POON!

Lol, look at how sappy this book made me.