Should I ask her to be my girlfriend?

Q: Dan, Age 17 from Michigan writes:
I like this girl that is a really close friend of mine and I think she likes me but I don't know if I should ask her to be my girlfriend.

We are both going away to college in a year and we will be states apart!

What do you think I should do? I've prayed but I don't see a clear answer yet.

A: Or maybe you haven’t seen the answer you were hoping for? Have you prayed for the two of you to be together or for God’s will to be done? Having close friends of the opposite sex is great but it’s when you tend to spend more time with those same friends that you start to see them differently. The attraction starts to build until the point where you feel like you’re about to burst inside trying to hold back your emotions. Seems like although you two are very good friends now, you won’t be near each other long enough to establish a solid relationship to last thru college. A year is great but is that all you want from this?

My advice for you is to pray. Not for time to be extended from here until eternity, not for her love for you to blossom, but for God’s divine will to be done. We sometimes tend to let our emotions get the better of us and we act on them. To our understanding if we like someone why don’t we act on it and start dating. Right? Well what we don’t see is if we are a true match for that person or if this relationship is going to edify our character or relationship with God. Emotions are tough and getting them crushed is really hard so that is why we need to be careful of whom we give them to. Not that your friend would do that to you but when two people have not had their emotions completely healed they end up hurting each other without the intention of doing so.

You may feel like your prayers have been going unanswered but everything has its time and its purpose. Pray to God, a very simple prayer, “Father, if these emotions do not come from you I ask that you remove them from my heart without any pain. If it is your will that I develop a relationship with this girl I ask for your guidance and for your patience. Amen”. That’s it, that simple. Don’t expect anything to happen overnight but turn your focus to other things and you will see how God will reveal himself to you in so many ways, just have be sensitive to His voice, even if it’s not what you want to hear!

Give it some time and let me know how it goes, in the meantime I recommend that you try reading “iLove” by Johanna Castellanos. You can find it online HERE. Enjoy!