Going All the Way Planning for a Marriage That Goes the Distance

Designed to Go All the Way Is she the one?Four words that shaped my hope. My wish. My prayer. Her name was Kelli. She was more beautiful than words could describe. Her tan was perfectly golden. Her blond hair could've starred in any shampoo commercial. Her smile stopped me in my tracks. And her legs... I'll just say, praise God for legs! Kelli was wildly popular, completely feminine, yet also athletic. Confident, yet humble. Exciting, yet pure. Every guy I knew liked her. Ilovedher. Kelli dominated my thought life.Will she go out with me? Go with me? MARRY ME? Have my children? Live with me in a house with a white picket fence? You know, for our dog. Not a chick dog, like a Shih Tzu. A real dog. Maybe a black Lab. Or a German shepherd. Named Joe... In my daydreams I was always the hero, rescuing Kelli from attackers using my finely honed nun-chucks skills. I protected her while stranded on a desert island. I kept her warm during a dangerous blizzard. All my fantasies ended the same: Kelli fell in love with me, then kissed me until I couldn't breathe. It was our destiny to be together. Forever. (Can you hear a Luther Vandross love song playing softly?) Maybe my imagination was getting ahead of me. After all, she'd never spoken to me. She didn't even know my name. And, well, we were both in seventh grade. But trifling details couldn't weaken her magnetic pull. My life orbited around her. The mounting pressure seemed too much for my heart to bear. Could she be "the one"? ON THE WAY TO ONE You're probably not in the seventh grade (and glad you never have to return to junior high hell again). But that longing forthe oneis virtually universal. You've yearned for the one to be part of your lifeyour soul mate, bound by passionate affection and a forever vow. Does a fulfilling, lifelong commitment exist in your future? You hope so, but maybe you're not sure. When someone cute moves to your school or starts a new job at your office, you wonder,Could this be the one? Or maybe you're already in love with someone. At this moment all the love songs on the radio make sense. You spend hours in the Hallmark store choosing the perfect card for your honey-pie-love-bunches. (You leave with eleven cards and a stuffed walrus.) For you the question isn't in the back of your mind; it's front and center, and you believe you know the answer.I think there'sa onefor me after all! But perhaps you're on the other side of the relationship divide, and you're not so optimistic at the moment. You're recovering from a painful breakup. Disillusioned. You were sure you'd met the one. But that was before the lying. Before the drifting apart. Before the restraining order. Before the dude like Jim Carrey's character inThe Cable Guy. Maybe you were married. With all your heart, you believed it was forever, but it simply wasn't true. Whether it was divorce or a breakup, you feel alone. You ache, wondering when the pain will ease, if you'll ever love again. Were you even meant to find the one? Doeswantingit to be truemakeit true? I don't blame you. I've felt the same way. Slightly optimistic one moment, devastatingly depressed and hopeless the next. I always hated the person with all the answers. You know, the married friend who preaches, "You just have to not care. Then you'll find the one." Or "If you just surrender, the perfect person will show up." Whatever. You might be thinking thatI'mthe annoying know-it-all right now.What does some marriedGroeschel, Craig is the author of 'Going All the Way Planning for a Marriage That Goes the Distance', published 2007 under ISBN 9781590529386 and ISBN 1590529383.