Dating Encouragement: For Guys

Go on a date that she’ll remember.

Go on a date that you’ll remember.

I’ve found that when I’m comfortable, she’s comfortable.
So if you don’t like sushi, don’t take her out for sushi!

You’re never too old for nerves to ruin a date.

If you can’t be brave for 20 seconds, be brave for 10.

I’ve learned being nervous can be a good thing.
It means she matters.
It doesn’t mean you’re a loser.

Date as if she’s the first girl you’ve ever dated.

Date as if every girl has always replied to your texts.

When the unexpected happens, make fun of it, and what I mean is make fun from it.

Remember the feeling when you first liked a girl? Find it again.

Believe the girl you’re hoping to find isn’t already married.

Go on a date with a 10.

Go on a date with a 5.

Because let’s face it, you’re a 5 on someone’s scale.

A girl’s not worth dating if she reminds you of scissors: Thin and curvy in the right places, but really, all she’s good at making you feel divided.

Don’t be a desperate single person because then you might end up married.

Believe you’re at least in the same ball park as your dream girl.

I think it’s sometimes better to ignore the signs and swing away.
Then again, a little bit of attention paid does make sense.

If you’re too scared to ask a 10 out, ask a 5 out first. No matter what she says, you’ll probably throw caution to the wind at that point.

Rejection is not a bad thing.
It means you’re 1 girl closer to your best friend.

I Gave the Best One Away

It was your favorite record. The last bite of lasagna. Or 3 years of your life. You gave it to her and don’t regret it for a second. Though the relationship didn’t last, you aren’t burned out on giving the best you have to the person you love because when it’s all boiled down, that’s what you’re supposed to do. Maybe it didn’t work out because she wasn’t doing the same for you. Maybe she isn’t the dream girl you remember her being or maybe you messed up and lost her. But don’t mess up by treating your future relationships with a cynical attitude. Because the next one may be the reason all the past ones are the past ones.

It was a normal, typical, forgettable day when I started looking for a stamp to mail my water bill. I came across a silly little Disney Vinylmation figurine that reminded me of a girl I once dated. You see, there were 2 figurines when I first returned from a summer trip to Disney World in Florida. I bought one for me and one for her. With the collection of these designer figurines, Disney was creating some mystery by selling them without the buyer knowing which one they were getting (they were packed in a black cardboard box). In theory (and a whole bunch of spending later), you could own the whole set! Go you!

After we opened them up, there was clearly a “cool” one and clearly an “ugly” one. I knew which one she wanted so I kept… this one: Yeah, clearly the lamest. But I didn’t care. I wanted her to have the best one. Do I regret keeping this one? Ehhh, maybe. Do I regret selling it online? No way. Hey, I’m sure somebody wants it (and if that somebody is you, eBay).

I never found the stamps but in a moment of nostalgia, I found out that whether it was gifts, time, or revealing the deeper things in my heart, I don’t regret anything I gave that girl and I don’t regret our relationship ending, either. That was meant to be, and giving the best of who I am is what I’m meant to do. My creativity, my time, my trust, what I cherish the most which could be my family, my dogs, keys to my house, or telling someone something no one else knows, I’ll give it all away.

I won’t stop giving my best to whoever I’m dating at the time. Because that girl may turn into my girlfriend. She may turn into my wife. She may turn into the mom of my kids and a grandma to their kids. And one day as we’re looking through old photos of our family, I’ll realize somewhere along the line as I was giving her the best I had to offer, we actually gave the world the best we had to offer… and we’re looking at pictures that prove it.

Can Wii Start Over?

Even new gaming systems, with their advanced graphics and global interactivity, still offer the one thing that everyone wants: a reset button. A chance to erase what just happened and do better.The first game system I had was the original Nintendo. My brother and I played Tecmo Bowl for hours and hours… then we’d go eat breakfast. There were other games but that one and Mario Brothers were our favorites. The Nintendo console only had 2 buttons: power and reset. The latter was used in 2 situations: when the game was frozen or when you were losing so bad and wanted to start over. The underlying idea here is that people love having another chance to do better and sometimes in real life, I find myself searching for the reset button. Like I’ve reached level 3 but continue making the same mistakes I made on level 1. Idiot! Now I’ve only got a little bit of strength left. I’ll never save the princess, so boop, hit reset and start again. Erasing the memory. Starting over. I wish it was that easy.

I’m about to get all spiritual now because the more I think about it, the more I believe Jesus can be the reset button. Look at the woman caught in adultery. Jesus basically hit the reset button for her. Same with guys that cheated in their jobs, people that had diseases or blindness, or even people that had it all together. Jesus offered them a chance to start over. And what’s just as cool as this, he also offers a way to regain strength when it’s low. It’s by having hope in him. He says we can soar on wings like eagles (kind of like Mario with the star that let you run through anything or jump really high, only cooler).

Isaiah 40:31 “…but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

Oh, another cool game was Excite Bike. Heck yes, I’d like to create my own race track! So when we feel like we just blew a big interview, a promising first date, or a chance to do whatever it is we wanted to do, just like an old Nintendo game, sometimes blowing it is exactly how to get things working again. We can learn from these mistakes. But the renewal, the second chance, the getting stronger part, that truly comes from Jesus. Then, like the skinny little boxer in Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out, we can keep going. Keep battling. Face our challenges, however big they are, and deliver the knockout punch. 

Hiding in Plain Sight

Practically hiding in plain sight, I approached to discover it was exactly what I was hoping for. It’s something that millions of people have, yet they’re extremely valuable. So valuable in fact, that you could be jailed for having a fake. I found it in my neighbor’s yard one evening.

My friend Millie and I made it down to Franklin, Tennessee to watch ESPN3 for the first football game of my alma mater, Florida State University. Quickly turning into a route in Tallahassee, she and I decided to take advantage of an available pool table. She’s no good, so it’s possible to know how good I am by how many times she beat me. After an hour of big time trash talk and small time skills, we gathered our things to leave. I returned the set of pool balls and we headed north. It wasn’t till a few days later that I realized I didn’t have my driver’s license! Didn’t take too long to retrace my steps and remember I left it at the bar when we rented the balls. Darn. Now I gotta go back to Franklin? I called to first make sure they had it, then ask if they could mail it to me. And this is why I don’t trust the Post Office. A week later I ordered a replacement license. A few days later it arrived. Walking from the mailbox into the house to find my wallet, inserting the new license, setting my wallet on the table then going in the kitchen to heat up a nice celebratory dinner is what I wanted to do. But somewhere after turning from the mailbox it all gets fuzzy. Fast forward a few days and now it’s definitely time to put the new license in my wallet. No joking around, it’s time. Only thing is, I can’t find the envelop with the license and I have to leave for work in 20 minutes. I scan all the normal places; on the kitchen counter, around my room, in the refrigerator. Nothing. I even skipped a shower (sorry, people I work with). So the action plan was to come home after work and engage Operation Under Where. You just thought about underwear, didn’t you? I was absolutely sure the envelop was somewhere close, but being gone all day, I knew before exploring all the nooks and crannies of my house, I wanted to take the dogs for a long walk. But then, it was going to be on! And I mean on like finding Bin Laden on, not like oh, look, Boy Meets World is on.

We were having a pretty good walk, the dogs and I. As we got closer to home, I began thinking about where I’d look for the license first, but then I became curious about a white envelope in my neighbor’s yard.

I have my license after 5 days of being run-over… over and over and over.