Finding Your Soul Mate God's Way

By Ron W. Mumford

Finding Your Soul Mate, God's Way requires all of us to make some life-changing decisions and decide who we trust with Love. Finding the Gold Medal of Relationships causes us to do some soul-searching, turning from our old lives and trusting Him to lead us to that perfect mate for us. We have to get out of our comfort zones and meet Him in the desert where He tells us that He will turn our Valley of Troubles into a Door of Hope. He will speak softly to us there and restore all that has been taken away. The Hebrew word for desert is "dahbaar" which means "to speak."
There are many gut-wrenching true-life stories of relationships that didn't work out and why. There are beautiful true stories of relationships that were truly blessed.
This is a book, a work book and a daily devotional with a road map to take you to your Soul Mate, Your Soul Mate Vision Chart. The book contains lots of humor, and is directed at anyone of any faith who truly wants to find their Soul Mate. If you do the work and follow His directions, according to His Word, you will know your Soul Mate!

• Language: English
• Publisher: 3rd Coast Books LLC
• Release date: Aug 2, 2022
• ISBN: 9781946743626

Ron W. Mumford

Ron Mumford is the author of a non-fiction book, Finding Your Soul Mate, God’s Way, an action thriller, Gray Justice, and a fantasy trilogy which includes Wayne’s Angel, Betwixt, and Z-Gen, soon to be published by 3rd Coast Books, LLC where he is now Co-Publisher.Mumford was a Journalism major at the University of North Texas, worked at two small newspapers as sports editor, as associate editor at a national trade magazine, and has authored freelance articles for several newspapers and magazines. After being drafted into the U.S. Army, he was an information specialist (Army Combat Correspondent/Photographer) in Vietnam and Germany, receiving two Bronze Stars for his service in Vietnam. He also wrote for Army Times and Stars & Stripes.Mumford started his own business as a literary agent in the late 1990s in Houston, Texas, went to New York and Hollywood to pitch his clients’ work, and did kick off the careers of several aspiring authors. The experience he gained from talking to many editors at Simon & Schuster, Putnam/Penguin, Warner Books, and many other publishing houses was invaluable.Mumford wants other authors to gain from his experience. One of his first editors, Myra Barnes, Ph.D., from Baytown told him, “Ron, as a writer, if you ever make it big in the book writing business, send the elevator down to your fellow writers!” This is what he is doing as a publisher at 3rd Coast.He has never forgotten that plea and continues to support fellow Indie writers in any way he can. IF YOU QUIT, YOU LOSE! He hopes to spread the word globally to never quit writing and never give up hope. Someone will come along and send the elevator down...

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Copyright 2012, Ron W. Mumford

Originally published December 13, 2012

This second edition published by 3rd Coast Books August 5, 2022

All Rights Reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical. This includes photocopying or recording by any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher, except for brief quotations embodied in critical reviews.

3rd Coast Books, LLC

19790 Hwy. 105 W. Ste. 1318

Montgomery, TX 77356

www.3rdCoastBooks.com

ISBNs

Perfect Binding (Print) — 978-1-946743-60-2

eBook/.MOBI — 978-1-946743-61-9

eBook/.ePub — 978-1-946743-62-6

Project Coordinator – Ian W. Gorman MBA, Co-Publisher

Cover Designer – Barbara Pennington

Marketing/PR – Pamela K. Ott

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1 Our Desperate Plea

Chapter 2 I Am Single, Hear Me Roar

Chapter 3 My Soul Mate Vision Chart

Chapter 4 Are We Meant To Be Together?

Chapter 5 The Dreaded Mirror

Chapter 6 Favorite Sin, Greatest Fear

Chapter 7 Two To Tango

Chapter 8 The Desert

Chapter 9 Spit in One Hand, Wish in the Other

Chapter 10 Vaporized

Chapter 11 Baggage Fees

Chapter 12 Equally Yoked

Chapter 13 Lord, You Want Me to do What?

Chapter 14 A Woman is a Rose, A Man is a Tree

Chapter 15 Dating vs Courting

Chapter 16 Destiny is the Road, Fate Awaits…

Chapter 17 Inerrant, Infallible

Chapter 18 Pick Up! God Calling

Daily Devotionals

Chapter 19 Friends! Soul Mates! Blessed!

Chapter 20 The Prize, The Promise Fulfilled

Chapter 21 A Letter from…

Sinners Prayer

About the Author

References

Acknowledgments

I thank God the Father, Jesus, my Lord and Savior, and the Holy Spirit for giving me the will, the words, and the organization of this book. I had to check in several times every day and every night for guidance. My gratitude goes out to my sister, Donna Gail, for her faith, her prayers, and her encouragement. I want to express my appreciation to my BFFs, Perk, Rob, PK, and Jeanne, for their support of this project.

A special Thank You to Barbara Pennington for her cover design that captured the essence of thought in graphics. Thanks Deena for all of your technical support.

I want to express a huge Thank You to all of the men and women who honestly and openly shared their stories with the readers. It took fortitude to let the world know that they and we are not perfect. We are just forgiven. And, to all of the volunteers of Single Spirit at Prestonwood; Diane, Buddy, Shawn, Marla, Karen, Trish, Rich, Elizabeth, Carl, Garland, Lisa, Claudia, Maria, Rene, Kirk, Kenny, Fannie, Brenda, Dennis, Angela, Linda, James, Gary, Russell, Robert, Morrell, Connie, Kay, Bonnie, Mitzi, Ron, Cynthia, Fred, Dale, Tom, Terry, Twyla, Jon & Saundra, Nancy & Wayne, and Scott. Thank You for your service, your faith, and your prayers. Continue the great work you are doing. Fred Pascarelli, Chief Organizer for Dallas Christian Singles, has always supported our efforts and for that, I say, Thank You, Fred.

I met Rita Mills, a writer’s best friend, at the Lexicon Writers Conference in Denton, Texas. Thank you for giving me guidance in the mechanics and financial areas of the business of publishing and authorship. Special thanks to Kenny Kurtz, my God-sent editor.

Finally, I want to thank my Pastor, Dr. Jack Graham, my Singles Minister, Ed Upton, Russell Williams, and my own mentors, Ken Brumley, Michael Perron, and Ryan Mason for allowing me to serve and teach God’s Holy Word.

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Chapter 1

Our Desperate Plea

(NKJV) Matthew 6:33 Seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all of these things will be given to you. Jesus. (Key verse to the entire book.) (1.)

O Lord, I’m so lonely and depressed. Please, please, please send me my soul mate right now! Amen.

Have you ever prayed this little breath prayer? Be honest! Did you ever wonder why God didn’t answer you right away? Since we’re all being honest, I’ve probably said that prayer, myself.

Thinking back, if I were even to admit that I may have prayed a prayer like that, it would probably have embarrassed me to admit it and I could almost hear God telling me, You want Me to do what?! You’ve had out-of-marriage intimate relationships that didn’t mean much to you, broken marriages and you want Me to send you a godly, Christian soul mate so you can mess that up, too? Not now!

At the time when I may have uttered this prayer, I could only imagine that it probably didn’t go any higher than the ceiling.

When we pray, God always answers us in one of three ways if we put a stamp on it—In Jesus’ name. Jesus said, Ask in My name.

If it’s a life-threatening situation, God acts quickly. If it’s not, He usually takes His time and says, Not now, as in the above prayer of desperation. Delay is not denial.

The other two replies we get from Him are Yes, and No. An example of a yes reply could be, O Lord, please help me through the day. In Jesus’ name. Amen. God always helps us through any problems that we face. An example of a No reply could be similar to the words of one of Janis Joplin’s verses in which she sang;

"O Lord won’t you buy me a Mercedes-Benz?

My friends all drive Porches, I must make amends…"

A very probable No for obvious reasons.

We shouldn’t think of God as a vending machine. We can’t just plop in a prayer and out pops a blessing. He doesn’t work that way. Think of God as your heavenly Father. He has your best interest in mind and can see into the future where you cannot. As a mother or father, would you let your 13-year-old daughter have the keys to the car if she throws a fit and tells you that all of her friends are at the mall and she has to go pick them up right now?

In the verse above, (LB) Matthew 6:33, Jesus states four things for us to do for our prayers to be answered: Seek, First (make Him our priority), the Kingdom of God (meaning to be a child of God by accepting Jesus Christ as your Savior) and His Righteousness, (meaning to live by His laws and statutes). Take a look at your life. Do you have a close, daily relationship with God? Do you keep His commandments? Do you need to make a few changes in your lifestyle?

The last part of the verse is a promise, …and all of these things will be given to you. All, not some, and that includes a soul mate. It’s one of the 6-8000 promises God makes to us in His Word. However, we have to do our four parts first. Easy to say, hard to do. One last question to ask yourself: Would making some major changes in your life be worth receiving the gold medal of relationships? Soul mates are as good as it gets in relationships. Here are a few definitions of a soul mate:

In Richard Bach’s book, (2.) The Bridge Across Forever, he describes our soul mate as being someone who shares our deepest longings, our sense of direction. Our soul mate is the one who makes life come to life.

Carolyn Miller, PhD. in her book, (3.) Soulmates-Following Inner Guidance to the Relationship of Your Dreams, says that she thinks a soul mate is someone your soul desires to be with because that particular association offers enormous capacity for the expression of love. She goes on to describe that many psychologists don’t believe a person even has a soul.

Webster’s 9th New Collegiate Dictionary defines a soul mate as a person temperamentally suited to another. The word soul mate didn’t even appear in dictionaries until 1822.

In Mark 10:8B, God describes a soul mate, or help mate, as, When two become one.

A Soul Mate Story, Love at First Sight

"It’s been so long ago. But despite the years, I remember the instant that I fell in love with him. I know that many psychologists say that there is no such thing as love at first sight and that it’s just brain chemicals like serotonin and endorphins. I respectfully disagree. Here is my story.

"I was by his side after he underwent some minor surgery. He was asleep. I took a good look at this magnificent man with his thick black hair, blue eyes, muscular body and I was a goner! That’s when love happened. He had my heart and soul. If two had ever become one, that was us. The first time I gazed into his eyes, it was as if we just bonded together. I can’t explain it. There was no other. I never knew other men and we have been faithful to each other ever since. He was perfect for me and I for him. It was a marriage made in heaven itself.

"Of course, I was quite a ‘looker’ back then, myself. I loved my long blonde hair, my soft, perfect skin, and rosy cheeks. I don’t think there was a super starlet in all of Hollywood that would have wanted her picture taken standing beside me. I’m not being full of myself, just stating a fact. I was beautiful! I was perfect!

"We had a modest home with beautiful grounds. My soul mate was in animal husbandry and just loved his pets to death. He even talked to them like they were human and sometimes I actually think they may have talked back to him. I was so enamored with what he did and helped him as much as I could. We worked and loved so well together.

"His father was a powerful man and gave us this place to live and manage. We were so happy living there. We laughed, we played with his many pets. We were free spirits and were going to live and love forever. I don’t remember my parents so his Dad became my Dad. And what a loving Dad. He was always happy, very smart, never denied us anything and he talked to us all the time. My soul mate’s Dad was so proud of both of us and we loved him dearly.

"Then I blew it. I don’t recall if I had too much time on my hands or whether I was just too content or what on earth made me enter into a business deal with a real snake of a guy that I’ll always regret. It was probably just my foolish pride. I further complicated the situation by getting my soul mate to go along with it and brought him into the whole mess. Looking back, we should have talked it over with his Dad, but, it was too late and the thing blew up in our faces. When his Dad found out about what we had done, he was very angry and made us move. We lost everything. But we didn’t lose each other.

"Times got really tough for the two of us. The new challenges we faced seemed to bond us closer together. We never stopped being soul mates. We just worked that much harder and closer and cherished our time together even more. His Dad finally forgave us but wouldn’t let us go back to our dream home. We had to work long hours to make a new life together and the memories of our former perfect home haunted us. But that was in our past, water under the bridge. Before long we started the beginning of what turned out to be a huge family. We had two strong, wonderful sons. One turned out to be a professional sportsman and the other a successful agriculturalist.

"My soul mate and I had worked so hard to make a new life together when tragedy struck again. A parent should never outlive their children. It’s the most devastating loss a parent can endure. We lost one of our sons, actually, we lost both of them. One was murdered and the other moved far away. We were back to just the two of us. Love and faith were the only things that held us together. Our love was no ordinary love, it was deep and it was pure. Nothing can separate one from one.

We went on to have many more children during our long, blessed, and less than perfect lives. Thank God that our love endured forever. As we both got older and our love became stronger, we could reflect on what made our love survive: Facing the challenges of life together; holding on to each other and never, ever mentioning the D" word. Divorce was never an option.

"Thank you for reading my story. I want to sincerely apologize for all the pain and suffering we have caused by our mistakes. But, only Jesus was perfect. You’ll make your share of mistakes and bad decisions also.

The good news is that we are forgiven. My prayer for you is that the Most High God will send you a soul mate just like my Adam and that you will face your challenges together, in love, devotion, and His righteousness. I know The Great I AM will hear your prayers and give you the desires of your heart. He promised! I talk to Him every day. If you want more details on Adam and me, just read about us in Genesis, Chapter 2. We were the first soul mates ever created. Be Blessed today. This is my love story that I share with you. I’ll cherish it forever… Eve.

God is the God of Love. He describes Himself as, I Am Love, in 1 John 4:8. He is not a god of thunderbolts looking to zap you every time you make a mistake, even though we suffer the consequences of our mistakes and carry the guilt of our sins with us. He is the God full of grace, mercy, forgiveness, and restoration. He loves you more than you can know with a love deeper than we can imagine. Sure, we disappoint Him in our bad decisions that cause us and others pain. They cause Him pain also. He feels what we feel because feelings were given to us by Him.

He also gave us free will and free choice. He wants us to love him of our own free will and of our own free choice. That’s the only way true love happens—when we choose to love deeply and purely.

Jesus tells of His Father’s love in many parables or stories. Often, even learned religious scholars of his day—Pharisees and Sadducees—and Jesus’ own disciples didn’t understand the meaning of them. It was all part of His master plan. Jesus wanted those with ears to hear to seek Him for understanding. He would tell the parable, take his disciples back to the Garden of Gethsemane and explain the meaning to them so others who wanted to seek Him would seek out His disciples for the answers. The disciples would explain the meaning to those hungry for His truth. When the disciples began explaining what Jesus was saying, even the scholars would listen to them, knowing that the disciples were uneducated, common men. This tactic gave glory to God through His Son and through the disciples of Christ.

The reason Jesus spoke to the common people in parables is because most people couldn’t read. Plus, there were only scrolls back in his time—no books—and the scrolls were kept at the temple. Only the biblical scholars and scribes (lawyers) had access to them. A common way of communicating during the time of Jesus was through stories. People could remember them and tell others.

We’ve all heard the story of the Prodigal Son in the parable Jesus told in Luke 15:11-32, about a younger son who asked to be given his portion of his birthright from his wealthy father. The father gave it to his young son, who immediately went off to a foreign land and blew the money on wine, women, and song. When his money ran out, so did the food to feed him. The young son was so broke that he took a job slopping another man’s hogs and was envious of the swine for having a meal every day. The young son came home in shame seeking to be a common worker for his Dad. Upon seeing the young man returning, the father completely forgave the sins of his son’s youth, placed a fine robe on him, put a ring on his finger, and welcomed his son back to the family with full status as a son of the owner. His dad said, My son was lost, but now is found.

This is the way God looks at us. We sin, but we are forgiven and returned to full status as a member of His Royal Family through His Son, Jesus, who died on the cross for our sins.

Have you ever heard the story of the Prodigal Daughter? You won’t find it under that heading in the Bible, but let’s see if the story fits. Is there a lesson here about love, obedience, and maybe even a soul mate? You decide.

The Prodigal Daughter

Let’s set the scene. At a time in the Old Testament, Israel had been split into two kingdoms, Israel and Judah. Strict Jewish law stated that all young women who got married must be virgins. It was a really big deal! When a man married a young Jewish bride, during the week-long marriage celebration, the bride and groom consummated their marriage right there in the village in nearby quarters.

Upon consummation, leaders of the church would enter the marriage chambers, strip the sheets from the bed and display them to the wedding party to see whether or not there was a spot of blood on the sheets, signifying that the young bride was, in fact, a virgin. If there was no blood on the sheets, the wedding party would stone the bride to death immediately.

Israel and Judah had turned from God and began worshipping other false gods like Baal. This enraged God. After all, the First Commandment states: You shall have no other gods before me! God is a loving God, but, He is also a powerful God with feelings. We don’t want to incur His wrath as the people of Israel and Judah did by prostituting themselves by worshipping false gods.

To show His displeasure and give the people an example they could remember, God instructed one of His prophets, Hosea, to marry a well-known prostitute named Gomer. This was unheard of. A prophet of God marrying a prostitute? Yes, God loves all his children, including prostitutes.

Gomer was very beautiful and had many male clients who gave her gold, fine clothes, and luxurious places to live. When Hosea knocked on her door, she was surely surprised to see him and even more surprised that he wanted to marry her. Now, Gomer could be married, be respectable, and not stoned to death. She would be well provided for and she knew that no one questioned the word of one of God’s prophets. Truly a wonderful opportunity for her to turn from a life of sin.

After bearing three children for Hosea, living a great life, and regaining her respectability, the world called to Gomer once again. She ran off with another powerful man and lived with him for many years. When her beauty began to fade, so did the man’s interest in her. The man kicked her out of his home and onto the streets. She was in a real tough spot. None of the other men would come to her for her former services, knowing that she was still the wife of one of God’s prophets. Prostitution was out of the question for continuing job possibilities. She had no skills and was soon starving on the streets.

Owing money she could not pay and completely destitute, Gomer was placed on the slavery blocks to be sold to the highest bidder. She was emaciated, starving, and was getting old. Hosea, still her husband, still a prophet of God, showed up at the auction and bought her back right in front of everyone. No doubt that Hosea, being a mortal man with feelings of his own, felt great hurt and heartache for many years. He felt embarrassment but not shame because he was being obedient to God at all costs to himself. He restored her physically, placed new robes on her frail body, and loved her for