Note: If you're concerned that this is going to be a "woe-is-me-self-pity" post, don't worry...it's not! Also, it's purely coincidental that I'm writing this post on the same day that two of my classmates got engaged to each other. I'm totally happy for them (congrats D&A!). You can continue with peace of mind ;).
Singleness. It's something that the majority of us experience. For some, this period lasts for a few days or weeks. For others, it lasts years or indefinitely.
When thinking about what to blog on today, my mind wandered to a book I read recently called I Kissed Dating Goodbye by Joshua Harris.
This book came out when I was in junior high and a LOT of girls at my school read it...but I never did. I guess I just wasn't interested at that time. Or I was having too much fun being a kid and still thought that boys had cooties :P.But as fate would have it, this book crossed my path a few weeks ago and I decided to give it a shot. I was curious of what Josh Harris had to say.
I read through the first 70-ish pages of the book...and hated it. I'm not saying that it was bad, but it just wasn't applicable to me. All of Part 1 of the book seemed to be targeted more towards to 'teen crowd' and I'm past that phase. Maybe that was why it was so painful...because I was reliving my uncool teen years.
Grade 7...*shudder*
At this point I thought to myself, "I can't keep reading. This is torture! But what will I do when I go to return the book to my friend and she asks me what I think of it?" *must retain some pride*
So I kept plowing through. And a funny thing happened. When I got around page 120 I realized that Josh Harris had a few good things to say. So good, in fact, that I copied them down. Some of his points helped put life issues into perspective. Here's a couple that stood out to me
"Whether you’re single or married; whether you’re liked, loved, or lonely; the key to contentment is trust. Believe it or not, if we are discontented with singleness, we’ll more than likely face discontentment when we’re married. When we define our happiness by some point in the future, it will never arrive. We’ll keep waiting until tomorrow. If we allow impatience to govern us, we will miss the gift of the moment. We’ll arrive at that point in time that we expected to provide fulfillment and find it lacking."
Deep, huh? Here's another one to chew on:
"Don’t judge a person by his or her line of work, but do take note of the attitude with which this person approaches work. An attitude of industriousness is one of willingness to work hard at whatever task presents itself. Bill Bennett writes: 'Work...is not what we do for a living but what we do with our living...The opposite of work is not leisure or play or having fun but idleness - not investing ourselves in anything.' "
Although I don't feel like my world was neccesarily turned upside-down by I Kissed Dating Goodbye, it was still a great reminder to live day-by-day with purpose and to enjoy "the gift of the moment". So, Josh Harris, thank you for that, and I promise to try reading your book Boy Meets Girl with a more open mind. :)
Have you ever forced your way through a book just to say you read it? Do you read relationship books?
Don't be too hard on your Grade 7 self: the clothing requirements did nothing for us. The stunningly beautiful Malcolm plaid and pleated walking shorts hadn't been brought in yet. :P
ReplyDeleteI once tried to force myself to read _In the Backwoods of Canada_, a requirement for my Canadian Fiction class at the Mount. But when I got to the chapter solely devoted to describing, in detail, the scope of Canada's backwoods botany, I abandoned that goal to avoid dying a slow and painful death incurred by literary arsenic.
It was a rare student who was able to pull off that uniform well, especially when paired with the bright red old-lady cardigan! I just made it that much more fashionable by wearing sports socks with my mid-calf kilt. Hahaha.
ReplyDeleteAnd just the name of that book puts a shiver down my spine! I think that if I was forced to read it, a part of my soul would definitely die :P.
Oh I love that quote about work not being what we do for but with our living. And I'm shocked thats a book for teens. It even looks deep from the cover. LOL
ReplyDeleteWhat's even more shocking is that Josh Harris was only 21 when he wrote the book! I was a bit skeptical for that reason alone. I found myself thinking, "How does he have the right to tell me the rules on dating!!". I tried to remind myself that God can use younger people to teach me! :)
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