Affection Without the Comparison Game

About

A single Sunday message on Song of Solomon 1:8-17 for the marriage, and the church, worn down by contempt and comparison. It reads the love poem plainly as two people trading delighted praise, watches the man reach for one arresting image instead of a ranking, hears the woman keep her beloved close as myrrh and henna, and notices the friends who join the honoring. Honest that this is human love and not a coded allegory of Christ and the church, careful never to turn the poem's images into a beauty standard, grounding the application in Ephesians 4:29 and Proverbs 5:18-19, with clear cautions for singles, the widowed, and survivors of contempt. Includes manuscript, outline, discussion questions, and cover graphic.