Paul Johnson... for a short while

A huge lesson that I have learned in the last week and a half is how greatful I am that I waited as long as I did to talk to her. Not only was it definitely smart to consider the counsel of those who have influence in my life but also simply because now I could never evalutate her as I did.

I spent the summer praying for her from across this little pond that sits between my apartment and hers and that was a really good distance. From there I could look over her life and character and see the good and the bad, I could watch her work out her relationships with other guys and girls, and I could test my own thoughts and intentions while they were unmuddied.

Through the last week and a half we have grown closer. We have talked more and spent more time together alone then we really ever had. This has been a very good thing because it has allowed us to know each other in a new way.

This also has done something interesting to the whole evaluation process. Her character and life are a lot harder to look at objectively and evaluate from six inches away. I just can't get as wide a view. I need to depend on the things that I saw in her over the last 15 months and trust that God is continuing in them.

One thing that I can do, though, is lead her more closely. I can call her more strongely to be pursuing God and I can challenger her to be the women that he has created her to be. And that is a wonderful thing and I love doing it. (Hopefully she loves getting it as much.)

So you can pray that God would lead our relationship and he would develop it at his speed. That God would lead us both into following him more closely through this, and that we would both dream and pray about how far he can take us together.