Good sense of humor, hard working, has a good job, loves kids and dogs, likes to build and fix things, loves to cook, nice smile, hair and at least a semi-nice body. Once again I found myself looking through the personals on the internet. No one met my criteria, what could I be doing wrong? How was I ever going to find someone to love. I stopped to think about what I really wanted in a soul mate. What kind of love did I really want?

I love to watch programs on television where the husband and wife love each other. It is wonderful to watch them interact and handle each situation in life no matter how difficult. They unite when their children are doing wrong and they work together to resolve the problems with appropriate discipline for the offense. They never blame each other for the child's mistake.

They are a couple that like to be together even if a distraction occurs because of life's dramas. They walk hand in hand and show affection even in public. They take vacations together and want each others advice. It is a perfect relationship that can never be broken by anyone else. Now that's the kind of relationship I want!

But lets face it, the world we live in today is seldom like the fairy-tale lives we watch on television. Real life has consequences, from the partner we choose to how we live and pay our bills. It could be the difference between living in a big house or living in a run-down apartment complex in a poor neighborhood.

Finding the perfect partner is probably the most difficult thing to do. It is so easy to allow your emotions to persuade you to commit before you really know the person. Just thinking with your desire for sex and not with your head is liable to make you hook up with a person who doesn't have a job, education, or any kind of ability to support a family.

I know a lot of couples who looked for love by going to bars and parties. One even hooked up for a while and got pregnant. Everything changed after that and now the relationship that looked like it might have worked, was over! Now they are forced to raise a child together!

What a nightmare! Some people should never be parents! Especially when they like to party too much. Having a child takes commitment and parents who will give up their lifestyle for the child's sake.

The picture is really bleak when you become involved with the wrong person. It makes you not believe in love! It's even worse on you when you try to find another relationship when you have a child by someone else. My friend has a child and every time she gets close to another person the child becomes the reason why they spilt. Well, I am not going there! I refuse to allow my sex drive to make me a parent before I am married.

How am I going to find a worthwhile relationship? A love that is an unbreakable force of love? A person who will share my hopes and dreams? I know it doesn't exist, at least not in the world I live in!

Suddenly a thought came to my mind. I was raised with faith and a belief in God. Many times in church there were sermons over marriage. I need to find out what the Bible has to say about the right person.

I wasn't sure where my Bible was until suddenly it came to my mind that it was at the bottom of my dresser draw. I ran to get it and immediately turned to the concordance to look up marriage. Some papers I had taken notes on during one of the pastors sermons fell out and into my hands.

I couldn't believe my eyes. It was a miracle! It was on marriage and how to find the right person. It was as if God was telling me what I needed to know. It was like He read my mind and was about to give me all the information I needed to find my soul mate. I excitedly began to read . . .

Matthew 19:5&6, "And God said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and unite with his wife, and the two will become one.' So they are no longer two, but one. Man must not separate, then, what God has joined together."

When God is first in your life He will help you find your perfect mate. God puts together unbreakable relationships. God holds couples together and gives them the ability to work through difficult problems that other people would fail at when they are in charge of their lives.

When God is the head of a relationship no man can separate the union. Court battles, jail sentences, family disputes, children born by other relationships, nothing will ever break up a relationship that God puts together. No situation can break their love and commitment. When God is the head of a relationship it is an unbreakable force.

When God puts two people together they become one. When you are one you don't think just about yourself, you think about what your mate wants. You aren't selfish and seeking your own will, but you are interacting with your mate, always talking and never isolating yourself and refusing to work on the difficulties that all people face in life.

It is all about love and commitment. It is all about letting God and the principles found in the Bible lead you into having a good life together. Love is the commitment, but God is the reason why it is strong.

In order to find the right person you must begin by looking in the right place. Start at church and single gatherings. Date more than one person and never allow sex to make you hook up with someone. Sex is a gift when it is in a loving, committed relationship by two people who want to build a life together.

When God is the head of your marriage then sex is a binding force between two people in love. It is a pleasure that enhances a marriage and makes you think of the other person's needs and not just your own.

Ephesians 5: 21, "Submit yourselves to one another because of your reverence for Christ."

1 Corinthians 7: 3&4, "A man should fulfill his duty as a husband, and a woman should fulfill her duty as a wife, and each should satisfy the other's needs. A wife is not the master of her own body, but her husband is; in the same way a husband is not the master of his own body, but his wife is."

When we don't know our Bible or how to have a good relationship with God's help, then we don't understand how sex works. When it is under God's love it is an act that shows affection and love because it is an act of giving and trust between a couple. This is the reason why God tells us to submit ourselves to each other.

As I finished reading the notes I wrote on the sermon about marriage, I smiled to myself. This is the kind of love I want. I began to search once again for my perfect soul mate. Now I had the information I needed to make the right decision. Now I knew I was looking in the wrong places and the only way to find the right person is with God.