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In the evening a bunch of people gathered in the home where I was staying.  It was a mix of friends and neighbors, and everyone was relaxed and enjoying a good time.  There were two people there, who I will just call “Solomon” and “Shulamith” for reasons that you will understand soon. :)
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Solomon and Shulamith were not married, but were obviously a couple, and they were sitting together on the couch.  Solomon had a “kingdom” of sorts, but in this story it was a business.  Shulamith was an employee of his, but I had learned ahead that she was becoming something more to him.  In the course of the evening someone in the group asked Shulamith what her dreams or goals were for the year.  The whole room seemed to go silent.  I watched as she crinkled her nose slightly and roll her eyes up and to the side to give it some thought.  Then, far quicker than I would have imagined for such a profound answer, she responded with a happy smile,

Well, I don’t know which impacted me more.  This response of hers, which she confidently said in front of him and everyone, or the reaction it got from her ‘Solomon.’  He reached over and grabbed her, pulling her into his arms with delight.  “I knew you were going to say that!” he responded, hugging her close and giving her a kiss on the head.  He then followed up by saying with a beaming smile and full of pride, “Yep, that’s my girl, and she’s all mine!”
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I thought of little else the rest of the evening.  I thought of how fast she said it.  How boldly she said it.  And of all the things she didn’t say. I noted how she didn’t recite a list of goals and things to do in order to be worthy of this man’s love.  She didn’t respond, “My dream is that Solomon would fall more in love with me.”  She didn’t even respond, “My goal is to love Solomon more and more,” which if you think about it closely, almost implies fear and insecurity.
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Now despite the fact that “falling in and out of love” isn’t the best way to describe true love, there is a gist of what this woman said that I hope you hear the same way I heard it.  To say as she did, “My goal is to fall in love with Solomon more and more” meant that she was purposing herself to be wooed by him.  Her goal was to delight in a proactive love in him that she already assumed was there.
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It is no wonder that this “Solomon” responded the way he did!  When she genuinely expressed that he was “willing and able” to love her and capture even more of her heart, you could see he visibly melted with a desire to be the cause and effect of even more responsive, appreciative love from her.  This was not a woman who was worried, striving, or trying to measure up.  She wasn’t perfect obviously.  She simply believed that she was the one that he already loved, and she purposed herself to stay in this confidence.