The proof is in the pudding

I was at an engagement party last night. Two friends of mine are getting married. They started out as just friends, and persisted that way for a long time. He knew in some sense that God had given this girl to him, but he wasn’t particularly pleased with the gift. He had other plans. He dated other girls. But eventually, he made the decision to put his own will second to God’s. And after he made that decision, he knew it was the right one. They’re really just right for each other.

I talked to her mother at the party. She said one of her other daughters has a boyfriend who remarks about her daughter that he never expected to find someone else who saw things the way he did. I said that chapter in C. S. Lewis’s Four Loves about friendship is actually the chapter that best describes the sorts of relationships that become marriages. She agreed. She and her husband, she says, were just good friends.

Do you think you are the exception to the rule? If you have a good friend, get married. Nobody who has done that regrets it. If you think God is nudging you in one direction, but your own plans pull you in another, surrender your own plans. Nobody who has done that regrets it. But you may not know that until you try it. The proof is in the pudding.

But in the mean time, look at how happy all these other people are—people who did the right thing—and take heart.