Two posts ago, I told you about how I recently started using a new Bible reading plan from Zondervan to help give some structure to my morning devotional Bible study times, and I mentioned that within five minutes of reading the first day's selection (Numbers 11), I got the feeling that God was speaking to me about a specific prayer request I recently laid before him.

Last post, I told you what that prayer request was. I shared with you that for my recent birthday, I made a specific birthday wish (a.k.a. prayer), asking my heavenly father for husbands for several of my close single girlfriends who are over 35 and really want to be married.

My birthday was Monday, May 17, but the celebration of my birthday has become more of a season than a day. I am blessed to have a lot of really amazing friends, and we are celebrating with mini-parties of 2-4 people at a time, going out for dinner, seeing plays, going to museums, and more.

The first celebration took place on Thursday, May 13, when my friend Kara took me to one of my favorite restaurants in Staten Island, Adobe Blues. Then, Friday I was with relatives for dinner at Beyoglu, Saturday was dinner (Thai) and a play (Falmouth Theatre Guild's "The Secret Garden") and then drinks and live music at Liam Maguire's in Falmouth (Cape Cod). Monday was lunch with my co-workers at one of my favorite restaurants in Manhattan, Simply Pasta, and then dinner with my two NYC-based cousins at Persepolis, which was a replacement for our original destination, which was packed with a long wait. (This was a fortuitous change of plans... I found out about Persepolis from my OpenTable iPhone app, and it was a wonderful dining experience. Their homemade rose ice cream - yes, I said rose - was heavenly.)

One, two, three, four tell me that you love me more... Love is unpredictable. Yet it has a funny way of fitting in to one of the two stages of romance.

Stage One: The Obsessive Stage of Love

Did you know there has been extensive scientific research done on the “in love” obsessive stage of love? Prof. Dorothy Tennov of the University of Connecticut at Bridgeport, wrote a classic book, Love and Limerence, in which she concluded that the average lifespan of this stage of love is two years.1 During this obsessive stage of love, we live under the illusion that the person with whom we are in love is perfect...at least, perfect for us. Our friends can see his or her flaws, but we cannot. Your mother may say, “Honey, have you considered that he hasn’t had a steady job in five years?” Your response may be, “Mom, give him a break. He’s waiting for the right opportunity.” Your coworker may say, “Have you considered that she’s been married five times before?” to which you respond, “Those guys were all losers before. The woman deserves to be happy. I’m going to make her happy.”