By Barb Winters

Growing up I longed for the day I would dance in the arms of a man who would make me feel special. At age ten, I shut my bedroom door, walked past the lace-white canopy bed, picked up a 45 (think CD), and put it on the record player. I dragged my chair across the room, placed it under the window, and knelt on it. I lifted the bottom pane, propped my elbows on the window sill, and sang along to Chicago's "Just You 'n' Me."

"You are my love and my life,
And you are my inspiration,
Just you 'n me, Simple and free,
Baby you're everything I've ever dreamed of."

I yearned for love like the song described. I was lost in a world of romance. Before long, I daydreamed about real boys and fell to sleep imagining so-and-so kissing me. And by the ripe old age of twelve, I had a steady boyfriend.

Girls today yearn for the same thing. My son's friend captures this on her facebook profile page: "I wanna be the girl he gives his hoodie to & cuddles up next to when it's cold. I want him to come up behind me, wrap his arms around my waist, catch me off guard, and whisper in my ear, 'You look beautiful.'"

The cravings for a "prince" still exist. Girls want to be Cinderella, and boys want to be the hero. Furthermore, society lures us into believing the fairytale story can be ours. The desires are real. This empty world leaves us wanting more.

We were designed to seek unconditional love and acceptance - to covet something bigger and better than the world can offer. Unfortunately, we seek comfort and fulfillment in a boyfriend or girlfriend, entertainment, food, alcohol, drugs...and all the while, God woos and waits.

I married at 19 and assumed my search for Mr. Right was over. I was an intelligent, attractive college student ready to change the world. Life was good. And yet, I continued to sense the emptiness that had plagued me for years. I still cried at night. I locked myself in the bathroom, wedged between the bathtub and toilet, telling myself my husband hated me and I had nothing to offer.

That's where I was when Jesus found me. Young, pretty, and going places. Quiet, insecure, and desperate for something more.

Like the woman at the well, I sought to quench my unending thirst with worldly pleasures and consumable resources. And like the woman at the well, I left my water jar when I found the Living Water, my real Prince. I exchanged the temporal for the eternal.

Unconditional love and fulfillment are not found in people and things. People disappoint. Things fail. Christ accepts - forever. His love continuously flows. His well does not dry up. We can never expect more from Him than He can give. And He never expects more from us than He can supply.

Barb and her husband, Don, have four children, Kevin, JT, Kenneth, and Melinda. Barb home schools her children and encourages her husband in his pastorate position. Her passion is ministering to ladies. Her purpose is to glorify God. Follow Barb's blogs at foodliesandtruth.blogspot.com and thefatherheartofgod.blogspot.com.