Yoke'd Up

In the Northern Hemisphere

In South Africa, its spring and that means long, cool nights and short, lacy outfits! The summer bodies better come through!!

Trying to find bae is not seasonal, its a year round activity = MissionBae'dUp . Cuffing seasons may come and go, but the search is on- we just use different bait at the various times of the year. In winter, body heat and in summer showing the heat that is your body!

                                                                                  The Ultimate Matchmaker

Introducing the old school way to get bae'd up.. well not really, but kind of. Its called a Yoke!

If you have been in church for a decent amount of time you have heard these scriptures:

Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness (2 Corinthians 6:14)

and maybe

For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light. (Matthew 11:30)

As a city slicker, I only discovered what a yoke looks like today. For the longest time I though this was a yoke:

Behold the plough!

The purpose of the yoke is to make weight of the work lighter on the animals by distributing it evenly on them. This means no animal is pulling alone or being dragged by the other. Its about helping and sharing the burden. 

See, because I had the wrong idea of what a yoke is, those verses above didn't quite hit home. The plough is a symbol of struggle, sweat and dirty work- whereas the yoke symbolises a grace that is extended to us, because Jesus didnt have to come down. He chose to and He still chooses to help us bear burdens He didn't create. He goes halvies with us, in fact, most of the time He goes more than that. 

In my mind, I saw a plough so I saw struggle, toil and exhaustion. This stress causing feeling that I have to do everything "No pressure, No diamonds.... If its to be, its up to me" were (are) my mantras. When I am frustrated I don't turn into a giant green monster that terrifies, mystifies and is beyond reproach by insurance companies. I kinda just resort to:

I  dont believe in  Scientology,, but they have developed some very useful study tips. One of them is clearing the undefined word- they suggest that your mind stops comprehending when you come across a word you don't understand. The theory is that your mind will not be able to understand beyond that word, so you must stop- get tools to define the word and proceed. There was a part of grace I didn't understand because I didn't know what a yoke was, so seeing this image of the yoke helped me tremendously, really, the penny dropped for me!

I think even in the quest to be bae'd up, the same principles apply. What is your focus on? on the plough or the yoke? Are you thinking of all the wonderful sex or the partner that will sit with you in emergency rooms when you have a sick baby? Are you thinking of the mansions or the person who will be holding your hand when the coffin of your mother or father is going down? You don't want to be pushing them into the grave too! Or if you are like me you see marriage or relationship as losing certain freedoms and basic human rights  , but you don't see the friendship and someone to warm your side of the bed in winter.

In conclusion, it is more important to be Yoke'd Up than to be Bae'd Up!

Thoughts?