Praying for the One: You

God gives all of His children equal opportunities for happiness through the Atonement. He is our Heavenly Father, and like all fathers, He doesnt love one child more than another. Of this, there is no argument. He wants us to be happy.

And yet, we forget this easy to accept principle when it comes to seeking an eternal companion. We make it into something difficult and complicated. Many of us allow the idea to creep into our minds that there must be a “saved,” certain, special someone out there for us. We believe that there are trials and tribulations to be endured so that we can meet the One.

Have we made the “search” for love that much harder on ourselves by creating and building up this idea that there is only one person who can make us eternally happy? (Spoiler alert: the answer is yes.)

A friend of mine made a very insightful and interesting comment regarding the search for an eternal companion. “Its hard to believe or understand that a loving Father who answers when I pray that I have enough gas in the car to make it to payday, or protects me when my car breaks down, doesnt have an opinion on who I marry.”

I sat and thought upon that idea for a while. Shes right. It does seem hard to fathom that the God who helps me with something as trivial as finding missing car keys, doesnt have a stake in my potential mate.

But then it hit me.

My roommate is wrong. And so was I.

Theres a very huge difference in having the faith that the Lord will help me find the missing keys, or will get my jalopy home, and saying He has an opinion or an interest in me finding the car keys. When I find those keys, it is because I had the faith to be led to find them. Its an answer to a prayer. And while the scriptures are very in-depth, detailed, and written to be applied in all time periods, Ive yet to find a verse that says, “look under the couch.”

But in comparison, there are dozens of scriptures, both ancient and modern-day, that tell us where to marry, how to marry, and who to marry. They just leave out the specific name of the person, and what day and where to meet him. But thats okay. Thats where faith comes in.

Consider this advice from Elder Bruce R. McConkie, “The right person is someone for whom the natural and wholesome and normal affection that should exist does exist. It is the person who is living so that he or she can go to the temple of God and make the covenants that we there make” (in Conference Report, Sept.Oct. 1955, 13).

This book is well read in bathrooms

 

My book finally arrived at my house today! To say I'm a little bit excited to finally be holding my very own book in my very own hands would be an understatement. Its a difficult feeling to describe what it is like to have that physical, tangible proof of all your hard work and your imagination put together. I love the way the cover turned out! And I'm just so dang happy to have my book here!!

I got the following email from an old friend today. It made me laugh till I cried- which was much needed, I might add. There's been a little heartbreak around these parts this week. While one dream came true with the book, another one fell apart. I know I'll pick up the pieces and survive. But it was a heartache I didn't expect and thought I would never have to deal with again. But life goes on (eventually). Until then- ice cream! (And the pursuit of "perfect week!")

The email- 

"You need to know that because of your book, my family thinks that I have a stomach virus. Is it my fault that taking extended time in the bathroom is the only way I am going to get through this book and see what happens to Haley???? Granted sitting on Spencer's step stool is starting to really get uncomfortable, may have to look into 'reorganizing the closet' as my next excuse to get more reading done!!!"

Don't miss my new novel, "You Heard It Here First!" on Amazon, Nook, and Kindle!

When I Prefer Boredom Over Men

Other things that happen when I get bored- random pictures like this!

I very rarely talk about dating or men around here anymore, because I very rarely have an experience with either category. Which may just be why what happened tonight intrigued me so much.
I've had "wrong number" texts plenty of times recently, and I've ignored all of them. (Seriously- one dude in Utah cannot get what I hope is no longer his girlfriend's number straight. The strange drunk texts he sends her in the middle of the night, that come to me instead, are flat out disturbing!)

So here is what happened tonight.

I got a picture text from a number I didn't recognize. But it has a local Roanoke area code and prefix. So I figured it must be someone I know but never added to my phone book. The picture is of a local ballpark and team. I only know this because of the signage in the background. I've never been there, and in spite of liking baseball, have never attended a game either. No identifiable person in the picture. The text itself said, "Look familiar? I'm in Salem. Gotta love the beer and baseball combo! Good times!"

(Salem is where the stadium is located.)

For a minute I tried to figure out who sent it without having to ask. But I have no record of the number in my phone. I figured it must be a wrong number. But then I realized, I have a Utah number, not a VA number. What are the odds of someone right here in my town accidentally putting in a wrong number and getting me? Not very likely. So I Googled the number and got nothing.

I decided obviously someone I have met accidentally sent me the picture. But I've never been to that place, so no, it isn't familiar.

But then something else hits me- I only know Mormons locally. (A sad but true fact. I really don't know one non-Mormon in this small town.) So again, that is an even stranger message to send even if it isn't to me. What Mormon do I know that would make a joke about beer and baseball?

So I texted the random number back and chalked it up to a bizarre wrong number. I just said, "Who is this?" and figured the person would figure out they had texted the wrong person.
But then after a few minutes of boredom I decided to put the phone number into Facebook. This technique has never actually worked for me before, but lo and behold, it worked this time. A guy named Ed popped up. And he has not locked down one tiny thing on his profile. (Why do people do that?) 

We have no friends in common. He doesn't actually live in Roanoke or Salem, but in Blacksburg about an hour away. I only sort of know one person who lives in Blacksburg- a guy I met during my last foray into online "dating" nearly two years ago. Except that I have never met him. We exchanged a few emails, a call or two, and a few texts. 

I lost interest in him after he professed to be a born again Christian, and yet, in spite of the fact that he claims he goes to church weekly, and goes to a Bible study class weekly, was absolutely shocked when I had to explain to him that "no adultery" meant ALL sex outside of marriage, and not just cheating on a spouse. He claimed he had never heard of such a thing before, and really didn't see how pre-marital sex was a sin. (I didn't believe much he said after that.)

Other turn offs included his Cheetos addiction and martial arts obsession. But more than that, the lengthy emails he sent to me about martial arts. No thank you.

Last but not least, there was one other tiny turn off that could not be ignored- his name. I know, it is petty. But it is really hard to get past his name- Melvin. Melvin the Martial Arts Guy.

So you can only imagine my surprise when I glance through Ed's pictures, and he turns out to be Melvin.

Hmm...

A few minutes later he replied to my question text. First with "Edward!!" and then, unprovoked, a second text, "I'm with my dude though so unfortunately I gotta sober up. Dern it."

(Finding out he was a single dad who had never been married was what lead to the sex conversation.)

So this guy I have never met is texting me from inside of my town to let me know he's drunk at a baseball game with his son, and suddenly is using a different name, after 2 years possibly of no contact?

Normally something I would just delete and forget.

But I was just bored enough tonight that I wrote this post instead.

And no, I have no intention of replying to him or picking things back up with him. If I wasn't already not interested at all, finding out he lied about his name, and gets drunk around his son, pretty much sealed the deal on that one. 

There are some nights I don't mind that I was bored and not out meeting completely worthless men.

Sneak Peak Into Little's Room

A little sneak peak into what we did yesterday!

 

  

 

There is one very "amethyst" room upstairs with about 20 gumballs hanging from the ceiling. I'll post a picture of the gumballs when it is all finished. But so far, it looks really cool. It's much better than I expected!

Oh and the Cute Blushing Boy came over too.

The One Where My Cousin Meets a Cute Boy, Or Not

Yesterday one of my "BYU cousins" called me to chat and told me the craziest story. To protect the innocent, we'll call this cousin, "Atlanta." (In other words, all my other cousins now know who I am talking about, and you don't.)
The background- Atlanta is a very attractive and cute senior at BYU. Whether or not she sees it, men fall all over themselves to get her attention. So the story I am about to tell you could go 2 ways- either the man involved was completely sincere, or he was trying REALLY hard to get the cute girl to talk to him.
Disclaimer- she was laughing really hard, and I'm sketchy on details. I may be remembering certain unimportant parts wrong.
So Atlanta was on campus yesterday and a Marine approached her. I believe (insert the disclaimer part here) the hot young Marine was even in uniform. He explained that he's not a BYU student, but he's taking a class in psychology and was surveying people. He then proceeded to ask her a jillion random questions. Things like, "what's your favorite color? choose between options a and b." etc. Nothing incredibly interesting or informative about a personality if you ask me or her. And no matter what she answered, he was enthralled by her reply, and said strangely flattering things like, "That's so interesting!"
At one point he asked her to close her eyes and envision something while she answered. She said she cooperated but was worried about her wallet getting stolen while she did. She takes after me in the "never trust a man who's trying this hard" personality category.
So after spending quite a bit of time flattering her and questioning her, he asks for her phone number, in case he needs to ask follow up questions. And in what legitimately sounded like a total blow off, she explained she had lost her phone and didn't know if she was going to be able to find it. (She really had lost her phone, but found it last night, which is how she was able to call me.) So she gave him an email address instead. He even teased her that she was blowing him off. She teased him right back. She's an excellent flirt, I might add.
Throughout the 'interview' he claimed that her answers were just SO interesting because they were different from all the other girls. And Atlanta is just SO interesting...
So we started to wonder if this guy was for real. Because, come on. It's the BYU campus! Crazier stunts have been known to happen to get a girl's attention!  But then, much to our surprise, he did email her today with more completely oddball questions. So we had some fun with it, and she's writing him back tonight. I wish I could remember exactly what tonight's questions were because they were totally strange. Strange because they were so simple, not because they were deep and perplexing.
So with her permission, I turn this over to the blogosphere. Is the cute Marine in uniform she met on campus, but isn't a student there, but yet claims to be taking a psych class, who interviewed her very randomly really sincere and just surveying her? Or is this yet another very elaborate ruse to get a cute girl's attention? And what would you ask or say to him (via email) to smoke him out?


And for those tracking these things, I did not see the Cute Blushing Boy today, in spite of the fact that I did attempt to stalk him momentarily. But when I quickly realized that I could not do so without possibly creating a scene like Monday's, I chose not to.