The Dating Request

This morning I am thinking about one of those sponsored advertisements that popped up on the side of my Facebook page over the weekend.  It said, “James is 1.2 miles from you and has sent you a dating request.”  The ad may have been intended to be clever or convenient, but it came across as rather creepy.  Seriously, who do they believe would be cool with receiving a "dating request" from a complete stranger who is less than two miles away?  (Sounds to me like the makings of an episode of 48 Hours Mystery.)  Eventually, I got around to remembering that I had a choice to just ignore the ad.  So, that’s what I did.  But, it got me thinking about one of my most kooky and comical dating experiences.  The man had been asking me out for a while; however my schedule had never permitted it.  Finally, I agreed I could go to dinner for my birthday as long as could bring my daughter along.  She was about three years old at the time.  We had no sooner been seated when he launched into a speech about being at a place in his life where he knew what he wanted, and he knew he wanted to be married by May.  I should probably mention that my birthday is in February.  Perhaps sensing my tension, my daughter said to him, “I don’t like you.”  Undeterred, he went on to tell me what he expected in a wife and what I could expect from him as a husband.  Once he was done talking, I told him I wished him well and that I would pray for him to meet his wife soon.  And so we ate in awkward silence, interrupted every few minutes by my daughter’s declaration in an increasingly loud tone, “I don’t like you!”  As I sit reminiscing about that and other dating disasters, my heart is led to make my own dating request.  I will tell my Father these desires of my heart...to begin dating a man of wisdom, kindness, and integrity…that we will laugh and have fun and be able to talk about all kinds of things…that he will have eyes to see beyond what I am on the outside and perceive that there are treasures within...that we will grow to be best friends.  And I will go on my way, enjoying each day in faith and trust. I know that when we meet, he will be a wonderful blessing—even if it turns out that, all the while, he was less than two miles…or less than two minutes…away.