Owner: Ask Andrea URL:http://askandrea.adamsweb.us Join Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2007 16:04:16 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: Christian. Advice. Free. What more could you ask for? What? Book Reviews, too? Why not? Site statistics:Click here
CFBA Tour: Reclaiming Nick 2007-03-28 14:55:37 In Reclaiming
Nick, a novel by Susan May Warren, Nick Noble returns home to ensure the family ranch stays in the family, just as the back cover said (always nice when the cover copy accurately describes the story). He’s also definitely the prodigal son (in the modern sense if not the original sense of wasteful)—which means the reader can expect sexual immorality and a violent temper in his past. I appreciated the honest handling of youthful transgressions and the damage the hot-blooded eldest Noble brother left in his wake, not to mention a man returning after his father’s death to face up to his past.
What can I say? Warren kept her view point almost too well. The only real flaw in the infrastructure of her novel is that I spent so much time in the first chapter, two tops, flipping back to earlier pages, trying to figure out if Piper was the redhead or the brunette, with her complaining of how he poured the coffee and watching the redhead leave when the brunette had beans serve Read more:CFBA Tour
Enemy Strongholds and Nightmares 2007-03-30 19:51:57 Dear Andrea,I have reoccurring nightmares about evil bullying or attacking me. Enough to scare me. I wake up trembling and anxious. I say my prayers. I believe my actions are are not one with the Lord and I am attracting evil into my life.Could this be true?–Monique
Dear Monique,
Most nightmares come from us working out the bad stuff in life that we don’t want to deal with while awake, but not all. If a nightmare clearly doesn’t relate to anything you’ve gone or are going through, that leaves two possible sources: the devil, yes, and God. The latter kind of nightmare is comparatively rare and usually prophetic/intercessory in nature. A, ah, holy nightmare will sometimes warn of the future, reveal happenings in the spiritual realm, or even something happening to a perfect stranger, but regardless amounts to a prayer prompter.
Now, third, demons do attack in our sleep, and often in the form of a nightmare. This doesn’t necessarily mean we’ve done something wro Read more:Enemy
, Nightmares
FYI 2007-04-02 19:28:34 Gentle readers,
A couple things I wanted to note. First, my husband’s site, Adam’s Blog, has won the Thinking Blogger Award. Congratulations, Honey!
Second, Karina Fabian and her husband Robert have a Catholic Science Fiction anthology, Infinite Space, Infinite God, touring with the Christian Fiction Review Blog.
Update: This is my 100th post here at Ask Andrea
In Christ’s Joy,
Andrea Graham
carnival of christian advice - April 3, 2007 2007-04-03 15:14:11
Welcome to the April
3, 2007 edition of carnival of christian advice.
answers
Nancy Geiger presents What I Learned Teaching Sunday School: Don’t lose your first love posted at What I Learned Teaching Sunday School saying, “When you love someone you want to know everything about them, to spend time with them, please them. You are excited by the very thought of them.
It's the same in individual Christian lives.”
Matthew Paulson presents Great Ways to Help Your Church Without Spending a Dime posted at Getting Green, saying, “Financial support for one's local church is definitely a good thing, however a lot of people just don't have the resources to give a serious amount of money to the local church. Fortunately you can give your time and energy to the church instead.”
Matthew Paulson also presents Why God Doesn’t Answer Your Prayers About Money posted at
Getting Green, saying, “God will provide for us, but he will give us what we n
CFBA Tour: In High Places 2007-04-04 21:32:47 Popular wisdom is that women are more likely to read fiction and men are more likely to read non-fiction. Tom Morrisey challenges this notion with his novel IN HIGH PLACES (Bethany House March 1, 2007), and without any car chases. But definitely plenty of testosterone. To put it succinctly, if you’re not into vicarious adventure, you’ll learn more about rock climbing than you ever wanted to know.In High Places
is a first-person narrative, Wonder Years style, (if you slept through 80’s television, that’s where an adult narrator regales us with tales from his formative years.) We meet Patrick Nolan, at sixteen, just coming back from a father-son weekend rock climbing trip, to find his mother has died suddenly, leaving behind only circumstantial evidence as to why.
His father, with no faith to sustain him, takes his son and moves down to their favorite rock climbing haunt in West Virginia, where he opens a rock climbing equipment store and plays chicken with death.In terms of Read more:CFBA Tour
CFBA Blog Tour: Coral Moon 2007-04-11 16:14:21 If you love Christian Suspense novels with serial killers and possibly ghosts/demons running around, you’ll love Brandilyn Collins’ novel CORAL MOON (Zondervan 4/27/07), the second book in her Kanner Lake Series (note that is Kanner, not Tanner.)
If your interpretation of Php 4:8 and it’s command to only think on things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous, or praiseworthy doesn’t include reading about a serial killer lose in small town, Idaho, well, consider yourself warned.
Before getting your underwear in a bunch, let’s stop and consider the first on that list: True. The truth isn’t always lovely. In fact, in this fallen world, it’s often quite ugly.
In evaluating a novel, I always look at the deeper theological truths conveyed and whether the novel reveals something about the reality of sin, or condones it. Surprisingly, in my time as a reviewer, the sin I’ve most commonly seen winked at in Christian fiction is lying and deception. A Read more:Coral
Strife, Dogs, and Child-like Faith 2007-04-10 18:54:16 Katherine writes:
I am worried, my two-year-old daughter woke up inconsolable and screaming in terror. She had a nightmare that a vicious white dog was after her. Can you help with what this may mean?
Dear Katherine,
White can mean pure evil as well as the positive side of purity. Other negative associations can include leprosy (unclean), self-righteousness, and even death.
Dogs are unclean creatures in the scriptures, where they have a reputation for eating people, and can represent unclean spirits (demons,) worldly/sinful passions, or strife.
Unless she’s had a negative encounter with a real dog that could have spurred this, I’d thoroughly check her environment for strife, as there’s a very strong possibility she’s reacting to strife in her home or some other place she frequents. If this is determined to be the culprit, you’ll have to take measures to alleviate the hostilities for your daughter’s sake, or find ways to protect her from it, such as not allowing arguing Read more:Faith
Juggling the Balls 2007-04-13 18:03:55 Dear Gentle Readers,
The following article has been adapted from the website that spawned this one, All For Christ. It is no longer being updated at this time. This is for all of us trying to fit twenty-six hours into twenty-four, all who feel overwhelmed, all who find letting go and letting God have control as difficult as I do.
And if you feel like you’re juggling a half dozen bowling balls . . . I’m sending a great big bear hug at’cha.
Love in Christ,
Andrea Graham
As we go through life, one by one, we are given pool balls, and the occasional bowling ball, by various folks with the instruction: Juggle. Do not ever let the balls fall to the floor. No matter what, you must keep the balls in the air. It is a matter of life and death. If you drop the wrong ones, they will explode in your face.
This, however, would seem a very cruel joke: no matter how hard we try, we can never keep all the balls in the air. There is simply too many, and we know that not all of the b Read more:Balls
CSFF Tour: Return of the Guardian-King 2007-04-17 01:28:05 Christian Fantasy. What comes to mind? For many, the first word to pop up is, “Contradiction.” If you’re sold on Fantasy as a genre being wicked prima facie, the forth novel in Karen Hancock’s Legends of the Guardian
-King, Return
of the Guardian-King, probably won’t be able to persuade you otherwise, even if the publisher has classified the genre as “Allegory.”
And it is, but if you’re in this group, you’ll still take issue. Whether you insist his name is Yahweh or Jehovah, it will bother you, as has me, that she changed God’s name to “Eidon” that this is Greek for “I saw” will not improve matters. Hancock could sit down and write out an explanation detailing every Christian allegory in the book, and even if her arguments for the validity of her chosen symbols were so compelling, you could think of no response to them, you would come back with an attack accusing her, in so many words, of blasphemy for setting an allegory in the tradition of Pilgrim’s Progr Read more:CSFF Tour
Literal or Parable? 2007-04-19 00:29:59 Dear Andrea,Please tell me your interpretation of this dream. I have dreamed that a man is having a heart attack and he clinches his heart he goes down and passes out. No one comes to aid him. Could this possibly be a dream that is showing me what may happen to this person because I do know him.
Please advise
Angela
Dear Angela,
First, as the bible says of dream interpretation, “it is not in me” (Gen 41:16) but rather, “interpretations belong to God.” (Gen 40:8) What I know in general, I share, and interpret only when He gives one, and even then I am cautious, in awareness of my own fallen human condition. Anything I tell you, He must confirm to you in prayer.
Most dreams are not literal, but parabolic, and are usually about yourself. What characteristic, personality trait, strength, or weakness stands out to you about him? It’s possible he represents the same trait in yourself.
It’s also possible, if you’ve had concerns about his health, that Read more:Parable
Ignorance and Spiritual Famine 2007-04-27 16:58:06 Dear Sister Andrea,
I want to tell you of my husbands dream two days ago. He dreamed our Pastor was preaching. Our Pastor gets excited and runs around the pulpit a lot and in his dream he was doing this. My husband could see the Pastor but it was pitch dark in the church. He could see no one else. Nothing but blackness.
Julie
Dear Sister Julie,
Has the pastor’s sermons left your husband feeling “in the dark” lately? There are other things black/darkness can symbolize, but “ignorance,” or a lack of knowledge/truth, is what this brings to my mind. If this is correct, it would be very similar to another dream shared around here, where that church evidently had a darkness problem in their evangelistic outreach. Darkness could also indicate general sin, God’s judgment, or demonic activity, though in some contexts, it can have a positive meaning.
But most likely here it’s the cry of a hungry soul not getting fed sufficiently in the house of bread. Such fervor, if done as an act Read more:Famine
Wrong Reason, Right Reason 2007-04-26 19:29:41 Why would a man tell you another woman tried to hit on him?–anonymous
A couple reasons come to mind why a husband might tell his wife this.
First, insecurity. If he’s not been feeling satisfied with the level of intimacy, it could be his way, consciously or unconsciously, of spurring his wife to show more affection, etc. Similarly, if he’s on some level unsure of your feelings for him, he could tell you something like this so he can gauge from your reaction if you still care about him and your relationship.
This one is manipulative and wrong-headed, of course. Better to discuss these things openly rather than spur each other with jealousy. But if insecurity is his motivation, the wise course is to reassure him. Words may not be enough if “words of affection” is not what speaks love to him. Depending on the man, touch, loving acts of service, spending more time together (paying attention to each other, not the television, movies, etc.), or for some, gifts, Read more:Wrong
, Reason
, Right
CFBA Blog Tour: The Heir 2007-04-26 01:02:42 Let me make a confession. I cry at sad movies, even when I know I’m being emotionally manipulated, or if my logical half of my brain tells me what I’m watching is tripe. But it has been a long time since a book made me cry.
Or at least it had been. Author Paul Robertson just changed that
The pages of The Heir drip despair, and from a young man most would expect to be fairly happy. As we meet him, Jason Boyer is inheriting billions from a man who shipped him off to boarding schools upon remarrying after the death of Jason’s mother. Jason has so little emotional attachment to his parents, that this first person narrator calls father, mother, and step-mother all by first name (which experience tells me some readers will find quite confusing)
Step by step, the author shows us the reason for Jason’s despair, as he struggles against the temptations that come with the power and influence of his inheritance. We see a man, and many of those around him, dying inside as they gain the wo
CFBA Tour: Tribulation House 2007-05-02 15:05:39 Though provoking . . . humorous … Chris Well’s novel TribulationHouse
was everything the blurbs promised. At first glance, his story featured a questionable mixture of first and third person narration, but in the end, he made it work, as what we actually have is a third person multiple interspersed with a lengthy police statement given by the fun Mark Hogan, who is so blatant in his erroneous thinking, he’s a humorous example of everything that’s wrong with those who get so caught up with prophetic timetables and sky watching, they forget key texts in scripture, that the author happily quotes, making his point quite deftly, if not subtly.
I amened the whole way through it, but the very people who need to read it, I fear, won’t be so amused, and may instinctively insulate themselves from conviction by taking offense.
Some will deal by laughing at Hogan and insist it doesn’t apply to them, because they don’t have time lines identifying the exact day, hour, and minute, i Read more:CFBA Tour
carnival of Christian advice - May 1, 2007 2007-05-01 15:49:41
Welcome to the May 1, 2007 edition of carnival of Christian
advice.
answers
Ben Cotten presents Embracing the Pig Sty posted at .: The SoapBox :., saying, “The hardest times in our lives often turn out to be the most important”
Jon Swift presents Is Abstinence-Only Sex Education Too Explicit? posted at Jon Swift, saying, “According to surprising new federal report, abstinence-only sex education classes have had “no impacts on rates of sexual abstinence.” If these programs have in fact been a failure, I don’t think it is because kids were being given too much inaccurate information. I think the real problem was that they were given any information at all.”
Joysoriano.com presents Why is My Cross Heavier? posted at www.joysoriano.com, saying, “Answers to the oftenly asked question on why our cross seems to be heavier than other people’s.”
related
Tommy Bowman presents Coming Undone?? It’s Ok posted at Worship Dep
CFBA Blog Tour: Ransomed Dreams 2007-05-09 19:49:32
Forget the “if you have children” part of the CFBA’s advice on Amy Wallace’s first book of the Defenders of Hope Series, RANSOMED DREAMS, if you’re happily married, ” it will hit you like a stab in the gut and wrench you with a twist of the knife.” For that matter, if you’ve ever been unhappily married, I suspect the book may have the same effect, but for very different reasons, as I’ll mention more of later.
They’re also right about the book covering depressing territory, Wallace has put on paper more than just her own worst fears, she’s captured mine, and many other’s as well. Adam declared jokingly that it should be illegal for women to read stories about husbands dying.
Wallace captured the emotions so well, I kept seeing my own husband under a white sheet instead of Gracie Lang’s Mark.I liked the vivid portrayal of the lies both she, and FBI agent Steve Kessler had ingested, and spend so much energy Read more:Dreams
Holy Grace 2007-05-11 15:18:58 Gentle readers,
Lately, I’ve been hearing, in one way or another, and from diverging sources, a single cry, ringing out. Namely, that the Church is supposed to be a family, but too often in America, it has more in common with daycare, a country club, thrift store, pick the business metaphor of your choice. Too many churches today are literally run as non-profit commercial enterprises and mean “when you’re here, you’re family” in the same spirit as the Olive Garden. We have people in the Church today, raised in it their whole lives sometimes, who have no, or little, understanding of the gospel.
The surrounding culture, it’s gone from “there are no boundaries” to “your boundary is wherever you want it to be, and mine is wherever I want it, and we’re both fine as long as we’re doing what’s right for us.”
And the church often responds by preaching this as the gospel:
“Bad news, you were born on the wrong Read more:Grace
Childhood Ritual Not so Innocent 2007-05-14 15:03:20 Dear Andrea,
Every one at school is talking about Bloody Mary and they believe in her. I don’t cause I’m Christian. Who is she, is she real?Clara
Dear Clara,
Yes and no.
As Wikipedia points out, “Bloody Mary” is a epithet for Queen Mary 1 of England, and earned it for her persecution of protestants.
The ghost, however, is just an urban legend. I would not, however, advise taking part in the popular sleepover game (I remember my sister and a friend trying it when we were kids). Because demons are real, and these kind of games attract them.
With any kind of ritual, of this nature, or from different religions, or superstition or curse, these things have no power in themselves, but , especially if you believe in them, it can bring demonic influences into your life. As a Christian, you don’t have to be afraid of such things. As Paul said, if God is for us, who can be against us? But it’s wise to leave the rituals alone. At the very least, it’s not wise to test the Lord in Read more:Childhood
, Ritual
, Innocent
CFBA Tour: ORCHARD OF HOPE 2007-05-16 19:13:36 ORCHARD OF HOPE (Revell March 1, 2007) by Ann Gabhart
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Ann H. Gabhart has published a number of adult and young adult novels with several different publishers. The author of The Scent of Lilacs, Ann and her husband live a mile from where she was born in the Bluegrass region of Kentucky. She is active in her country church, and her husband sings bass in a southern gospel quartet.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
In the summer of 1964, drought has gripped the quiet Kentucky town of Hollyhill, and Jocie Brooke is nervous about starting high school. Her sister Tabitha is experiencing the weariness of waiting for a new baby. Her father David is feeling the timidity of those first steps toward true love.
In steps the Hearndons. Fresh off the Freedom Train, Myra Hearndon is sensitive to what the color of her skin may mean in a Southern town. Her family will have to contend with more than the dry ground and blazing sun as they try to create their ORCHARD OF HOPE.
REVIEW:
Gabhart presents us wi Read more:CFBA Tour
Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Tour–May 2007-05-23 13:57:48 This month, the CSFF Blog is touring the online version of the magazine, The Sword Review. I haven’t been able to plumb this as deeply as I’d like, so I can’t vouch for the contents, but at the price of free, it’s probably worth taking a look at if you’re a fan. For poets especially, it’s worth taking a look, as this appears to be a paying market, and there aren’t many of those for any kind of poetry, let alone speculative.
As to the contents, as I said, I haven’t verified this, but the standards laid out in their writer’s guidelines are very promising. The gist: They frown upon the use of profanity, and if plot requires depicting sexual or violent actions, they prefer it be briefly summarized over rather than shown in graphic description.
This also sounds good: “If the content and message of your story is compatible with traditional values and Christian
principles, we will be happy to consider it.”
I have to admit, th Read more:Science
, Fiction
CFBA Blog Tour: Spirit of Sweetgrass 2007-05-30 12:48:04
This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing SPIRIT OF SWEETGRASS Integrity/Thomas Nelson (March 6, 2007)by Nicole Seitz See my review below theirs.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
NICOLE SEITZ is a South Carolina Lowcountry native and freelance writer/illustrator published in South Carolina Magazine, Charleston Magazine, House Calls, The Island Packet and The Bluffton Packet.
A graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Journalism, she also has a bachelor’s degree in illustration from Savannah College of Art & Design. Nicole is an exhibiting artist in the Charleston, South Carolina area where she owns a web design firm and lives with her husband and two small children.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Essie Mae Laveau Jenkins is a 78-year-old sweetgrass basket weaver who sits on the side of Hwy. 17 in the company of her dead husband, Daddy Jim.
Inspired by her Auntie Leona, Essie Mae finally discovers her calling in life and weaves powerful “love
If you’re asking where’s the limit, you’re over it 2007-06-01 12:53:55 Is oral sex still considered sex as far as losing your virginity? My girlfriend keeps pressuring me to let her…
–Anon
I believe the optimal word in “oral sex” would be “sex.” It would at the very least destroy your purity. Such an intimate act belongs on the marriage bed and is sin outside it.
Look at it this way. Biblically, in this context, your body does not belong to you. It belongs to the woman you will marry someday. The best gift you can give your future wife on your wedding day is a husband who hasn’t already shared any more of her “property” than you’ve already given away.
By the way, I would dump the current girlfriend. Anyone who pressures you and shows you such disrespect isn’t worth your time, and certainly not what I’d call a healthy relationship. Don’t ever let anyone pressure you into doing something you know is wrong, or aren’t comfortable with.
In Christ’s Purity,
Andrea Read more:asking
carnival of Christian advice - June 4, 2007 Edition 2007-06-05 12:17:57
Welcome to the June 4, 2007 edition of carnival of Christian
advice.
We have some great entries this time, though I cannot vouch for or guarantee the sites linked here or their links. I always do my best to weed out the bad apples, but it’s always possible I missed one.
Ben Cotten presents Stained Glass Masquerade posted at .: The SoapBox :., saying, “We must learn to be authentic worshippers that do not hide the reality of their lives from each other.”
questions
Ben Cotten presents The Emasculation of the Church? posted at .: The SoapBox :., saying, “Has the church gone from male centric to female centric? Why are the men in the church asleep?”
answers
Kathryn Lang presents Do It All and Still Stay Sane posted at The Peculiar Club, saying, ” Over the last seven years, I’ve been struggling to find ways to meet all the demands that I face without losing my mind in the process. Here are the top five things I’ve discovered.”
Jonatha Read more:Edition
CFBA Tour: Diva Nashvegas 2007-06-11 12:00:00 ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Rachel Hauck has multiple titles to her name. Her current release, Viva NashVegas is the second in a series which began with Lost in NashVegas. She is also a Blogger and a CFBA member! She lives in Florida with her husband.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Aubrey James ruled the charts as the queen of country for over a decade. She’d rocketed to fame in the shadow of her parents’ death-both of them pioneers in Gospel music. But while her public life, high profile romances, and fights with Music Row execs made for juicy tabloid headlines, the real Aubrey has remained a media mystery.
When a former band member betrays Aubrey’s trust and sells an “exclusive” to a tabloid, the star knows she must go public with her story. But Aubrey’s private world is rocked when the Inside NashVegas interviewer is someone from her past-someone she’d hoped to forget.
All the moxie in the world won’t let this Diva run any longer.
My review:
The book jacket synopsis pumps more into Read more:CFBA Tour
CFBA Blog Tour: As I Have Loved You 2007-06-14 18:16:42
This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing As I Have Loved You(Revell June 1, 2007)by Nikki Arana
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Nikki Arana is an award-winning author of highly-acclaimed inspirational women’s fiction who weaves today’s social, political, and spiritual issues into her novels. She has received numerous awards, including the Excellence in Media 2007 Silver Angel Award for The Winds of Sonoma, which was based on the true love story of how Nikki met her future husband Antonio as he was cleaning the stalls of her parents’ Arabian horses. Nikki and Antonio have been married for over thirty years, have two grown sons, and live in Idaho.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Leigh Scott is a widowed, single mother who wants the best for her son Jeff. She would like him to graduate from college, land a secure job, and start a family. However, Jeff, who was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) at a young age, has a God-given compassion for people. And his non-j
CSFF Tour: The Restorer 2007-06-19 16:04:42 This month, the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy blog tour is for The Restorer by Sharon Hinck.
Susan Mitchell, frazzled stay at home mom of four, retreats up to the sanctuary her husband built for her in the attic and reads about Deborah, a Judge (leader) of ancient Israel, but is interrupted by strange noises. She investigates, accidentally activates a hidden portal to a world uniquely Hink’s, and finds herself in a land that desperately needs her to be their Deborah.
Now, there is a logical reason for there to be a portal to another dimension in her attic, but I can’t share it without revealing one of numerous plot twists. Nor does that tidy plot summary really do the book justice. Per the cover blurb, Hinck indeed zigs where most readers would expect a zag.
Honestly, I was quite impressed with this one. Clean style, with sparse few mechanical kinks, and an awesome heroine.
I absolutely loved Susan, precisely because she isn’t the typical headstrong spitfi Read more:CSFF Tour
Surprise, Surprise: 2007-06-22 13:03:11
VIOLET
You surround yourself with art and music and are constantly driven to express yourself. You often daydream. You prefer honesty in your relationships and believe strongly in your personal morals.
But you gotta love the relativism (not) Seriously, you just discovered one of my personal weaknesses . . . (personality quizzes) Read more:Surprise
CFBA Blog Tour: Divine Appointment 2007-06-29 08:53:42
This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing THE DIVINE APPOINTMENT (Howard Books June 5, 2007) by Jerome Teel. And I’m backdating this a week late, and Tomorrow (July 4th) is my fifth anniversary, so this will be short.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jerome Teel is a graduate of Union University, where he received his JD, cum laude, from the Ole Miss School of Law. He is actively involved in his church, local charities, and youth sports.
He has always loved legal-suspense novels and is a political junkie. He practices law in Tennessee and is at work on a new novel.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Small town southern lawyer Elijah Faulkner practices to fight injustice. But when he takes on a case to defend a philandering doctor with a pregnant wife in a seemingly open-and-shut murder trial, Eli is not so sure he is on the ‘right’ side.
Add to this a dead (fictional) Supreme Court Justice Martha Robinson and a definitely fictional President Wallace, who believes God put him in Read more:Divine
Sexual Purity: Mission Possible 2007-07-05 14:26:53 How do people refrain from having sex before they get married? I’m 18 and I’ve never touched myself before or had sex but it’s getting difficult. How can I keep myself pure?
–Kyle
Dear Kyle,
I commend you for your decision to remain sexually pure. By following God’s design for sex, you’ll gain far more than the scorn of mockers, you’ll both maximize pleasure and minimize pain and regrets.
I realize how easy it is to forget this in the heat of the moment. Believe it or not, until about five years ago now, I was an unmarried person two years out of her teens, in love, and fighting to save it for marriage. Self control has never been a strong suit for me, and we lacked support as far as our family didn’t understand all our standards (beyond the no taking your clothes off thing.) But by the grace of God, we made it. Let me share with you what worked for us:
1) We sat down and discussed our standards of purity. For that matter, Adam and I w Read more:Sexual
, Mission
, Possible
Turtles Make Poor Rocks 2007-07-11 11:42:44 Hi, I am a senior in High School and I am going crazy and don’t know what to do. I am in love with a girl. She has said she likes me several times and I told her I like her, but its hard to tell her how much I love her, or how tears fill my eyes when I think about her or look at a picture of her. She recently went to a church camp where she realized she isn’t that big on dating while in high school. She met a guy there who she said was cool that goes to our school.
This is my problem. Every time I think of her liking other guys or not going out with me (which she isnt right now) I get depressed and get a stomach ache. After I graduate this year I will go to college, the same one where she will be 2 years after I start there. I’m afraid to ask her out for fear of going to fast or getting rejected but I cant go through life without being with someone who IS my life. I’m running in circles but if I keep doing so, it could have terrible effects on my emotions and Read more:Turtles
, Rocks
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