Cíntia Mara

You love God. I know that. Now, I think you will be able to love Him even better if you can stop trying to make God proud of you.

We are made to love God and serve people. If you start to focus on just serving God, then pretty soon you run out of love for people.

Yes. It’s the good thing. You know who you are, and no one can convince you to think or do something different. You don’t gave in. It’s the right kind of stubbornness. You have the right kind of morals, too. And look how happy you are. […] I was so jealous when you came back to the house glowing after your bike ride this afternoon. You didn’t need a guy to make your day fun. You don’t need to get high. You just have this thing about you.

All her life He had led her in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Sierra had every reason to believe He was going to continue to lead her.

The best part was that she felt confident she was going to like whatever it was He led her to next.

The reason I’m suggesting this is because, in this case, I think you’ll find that what you want is exactly what God wants.

Sierra felt as she walked along the beach that she had God’s full attention, in spite of the millions of children He kept an eye on day and night. It wasn’t as if she sensed Him giving her any advice or specific direction for the future. But she was okay with that. What she felt was that her dilemma mattered to Him, and eventually everything would work out.

“Sierra, what are you doing?”

“Waiting to be rescued.”

“There’s a guy up there with you.”

“There is?” Sierra playfully looked around.

“What are you doing? How did you get up there? Who is this guy?”

“This is Jordan. Jordan, this is Mariana.”

“Nice to meet you,” Jordan said.

Mariana wasn’t polite in her response. She stood with her hands on her hips, staring up at them with her sunglasses on top of her head. “Jordan, whoever you are, and whoever you think you are, you need to know that this is no ordinary woman you lured to your penthouse.”

Sierra turned to Jordan. “Did you lure me?”

“You’re not going to argue with me, are you?” Sierra asked.

“Not yet.” Jordan smiled. “I’ll wait until something comes up that’s really worth arguing about.”

She staggered, but the quick, open arms of the upstairs occupant reached out to take her as if she already belonged to him.