Archive for the ‘Dating & Marriage’ Category

Good advice takes only a minute to give but its impact can last a lifetime.  When good advice lasts a lifetime, we call it wisdom.  I became the benefactor of two pieces of wisdom in my teens of which I’m always reminded on Valentine’s Day.

Dad’s 3-Mile Gold

Our family lived 3 miles from school.  One morning as I drove the short distance to school, my dad gave me some gold between sips of his coffee as he sat in the passenger’s seat.  “You’re going to be 16 soon and will begin driving and dating without a lot of supervision.  Before you do, I want to give you my rules for dating:

1. You’re going to marry someone you date.  So if you date the right people you’ll end up married to the right person.
2. Right people for you are Christians—and not just those who say so, but growing, mature, committed followers of Christ.
3. When you get married, you will not be simply marrying yourself to your wife; you will be marrying my family to her family.  So, choose a good family.”

In 3 miles and less than 5 minutes, my dad plotted the course of my life with wisdom on loan from God.  Just over a year later wisdom spoke again but with a different voice.

Beth Before the Bell

It was January and our senior year in high school.  After lunch and just before the bell that rang in our 5^th period class, I turned around in my chair to talk to Beth:  “Beth, who do you think I should invite to the senior class Valentine’s Banquet?”  “Let me think for a minute…you should invite Deborah Perkins”, she responded.  Deborah was a very attractive and pursued girl in the church youth group.  Beth and Deborah had been close friends since infancy.  But why I asked and why she gave the advice she did is a mystery to us both, even today.  Wisdom is often as mysterious as it is profound.

Speaking of Mysteries

Deborah Perkins was a unicorn—equal parts beauty, myth, fantasy, poetry, and legend—beyond the reach of mere mortals.  My mortal hands trembled and butterflies swarmed as I dialed her number.  A few weeks later, we spent the evening together at the senior class Valentine’s banquet.  The most outstanding memory of the evening was conversation.  I had talked to girls before, but they never really listened and they certainly never talked back—at least not kindly!  But our conversation that night was mostly about what God was doing in our lives.  Little did I know of the surprise God had in store for me.

I went out with a unicorn but came home with a soul mate—23 Valentine’s Days later, she still is!  After all these years, we still laugh at the funny wisdom which has come to grace the adventures of this prodigal with his unicorn.