Hannah's Heartstrings

“My whole life, I’ve been preparing to be a good wife. I want a good husband. Do you know what it takes to make a good marriage?” (Rachel, Come What May)


In Christian circles, girls constantly talk about how hard it is to wait patiently for their Prince Charming to come. We talk about the struggles of maintaining emotional purity, of being content and all other such topics. This is good for us, and as hard as it sometimes is on our little hearts, as females, we enjoy talking about relationship related things with our fellow girlfriends. It’s how God made us.

But today, my words are for the guys.

We girls sometimes don’t realize how tough gentlemen have it. They have to wade through the sea of Christian girls, hoping to find one that meets their own criteria and isn’t an affected little goose. And to put it simply, guys don’t think about relationships in the same way that girls do. Oh, sure, they think about it. They just are not wired to think about romance 24/7 like girls are. That’s not a bad thing…it’s just how God made them!

With things being the way they are, guys need help sometimes when it comes to finding themselves a girl. I have three brothers…I know. There are some things that guys excel at when it comes to relationships (usually initiating them in the first place). And then there are some things that they just don’t think about. Again, I’m not saying that’s a bad thing! It’s how they are wired! But I think it would help if guys knew better what girls wanted and what was going on in their heads.
Therefore, I’ve compiled a little list of some things that I have learned (most recently, in fact) that guys should know when it comes to courting.
Please note this is all my opinion. I can’t speak for other girls. They may not see these things as important. But I wager there’s a fair amount of girls that do hold these things with high regard. And even if they aren’t crucial things, they will definitely score points.
So without further ado…

Hannah’s Tips for Guys

~Serve. Do for your girl even when you have no assurance that she is your girl.
~Talk. Ask. And Listen!
~Protect her heart. Say nothing and act in no way that would cause her to stumble.
~Until you are in a committed and official relationship, DO NOT monopolize her company or her conversation. She is not yet yours…don’t treat her as such.
~Learn to dance and watch at least one Austen film. It scores points big time. ;)
~Be real and honest. Don’t hold back your “long stories”, your past, your present or your future. Tell her where you’ve been in life and where you want to go. Don’t change you dreams to try to impress her, because if you are phony before marriage, that won’t change after the wedding.
~Respect her dad. Don’t try to get around him. He has raised her, cared for her and loved her since her first breath. You want to step in and take over his treasure. Give him the respect he deserves and in turn you will be respecting her.
~There is fine line you must tread by with caution in your pursuit of a young lady. Strive to win her, but do not demand that she be won. Actively and persistently pursue her, but do so patiently and be prepared to wait quietly for her.
~And again I will say, until she is officially yours, be careful how much of her company and conversation you occupy, for if you monopolize her, you are putting her in situations that may hurt her and make her uncomfortable by having to explain your over abundant presence to her friends and family. Be a friend but keep your distance.

"Fiat Justicia - Et Pereat Mundas.

I had a dream. A dream to go to a Christmas Regency Ball.

The canine breeding business is a trying one. Summer is one big marathon of feeding, cleaning, chasing, washing, feeding, cleaning…you get the idea. The puppies make up for it, though, by being irresistibly cute and making great photographic subjects. The people can be incredibly frustrating, especially the ones that want to scoff at the price (which is ridiculously low in this business), or get mad at me because I’ve already sold the only female born (as if I had any control over that!), or try to act like they know more than me about the breed or raising a pup (when even my unprofessional eyes can see that they are clueless). But as with everything, there’s a silver lining…the look on the kids’ faces when they see the pups, or the sound of the man’s voice who says he’s waited 20 years for his own dog makes it all worth it.

I could tell many stories of the people who’ve walked in and out of my life through the puppies. But there’s one couple in particular that will forever stand out in my heart.

They were the first to come see out litter of Beagle pups in mid-July, a friendly, middle-aged couple that I couldn’t help but like. I noticed several distinct things about them. They were extremely affectionate and attentive to the puppies, and appreciative of my time. They were intense, as if they enjoyed every single second of living. And they seemed so in touch with each other, so in love, almost like newlyweds, only on a level a hundred times deeper.

They intrigued me, and I sat contentedly with them as they admired the pups for nearly two hours. During that time, I came to learn their story.

Not even a year before, they had lost their home, almost all of their belongings and their two Beagles in a house fire that occurred when they were out of town. All they had left was a small trailer home, the Lab that was with them, the few pieces of furniture in the trailer and the clothes they were wearing.

During a later visit, when I watched the husband struggle to stand after kneeling to photograph the puppies, I learned that he had been in a car accident a few years before that had severed his leg at the knee. The doctors had been able to reconnect his leg, but it was obvious that there were certain things he could not do without pain.
They ended up choosing two pups, a male and female, and there were several times I could tell the wife was very close to tears.

As I was filling out their papers and explaining the details to them, the wife went to the car to get something. When she was out of earshot, the husband thanked me profusely and began to cry as he told me his wife had MS (multiple sclerosis). His eyes unashamedly filled with tears, and he said something I will never forget. “There are some things that money can’t buy.”
I couldn’t have been happier that not one, but two of my sweet pups were going to such precious people. But I was even happier that I had gotten a chance to know them.

Money can’t buy what I learned from them, their love for each other and for life. It can’t buy the joy and excitement on their faces as they came to pick up their puppies four weeks later. It can’t buy the sincerity and gratitude they showed me when the husband took my hand in both of his and said “You’re an angel”, and when the wife hugged me tightly.

They may not have had many earthly possessions, but that couple, more than anyone I’ve ever known…they had it all.