Our Love Story: The First Date

The first date is always the scariest, isn’t it? Sometimes you know if the other person is the right one after the first night on the town together. While my first date with Michelle didn’t wield the same immediate conclusion, just a few months after that first date, I knew that Michelle was the one for me.

Our love story began a little unusually. Michelle, the 26-year-old shy, beautiful girl that she was, decided to ask me out in a way that might seem odd to some. She decided to ask the pastor’s wife to ask the pastor to ask me if I would like to go out with her. I said yes, returning the message through the same chain of command, albeit in reverse order. Now the stage had been set. Little did I know that I would spend the rest of my life with her, my caring, supportive and faithful companion.

A day or two later I called her and we set the date, with one caveat. She had to pick me up. I didn’t tell her why I couldn’t assume the traditional role of picking her up. However, when the day of our first date arrived, I met Michelle at my door and introduced her to my grandmother. A few minutes later we ventured out to the car to prepare to go to the restaurant where I made reservations. 

However, before getting into the car Michelle asked me to drive, which was the one question I didn’t want her to ask. You see a few years earlier I was arrested for the third time for my drinking. At fifteen years old I had become an alcoholic and in my later teen years it progressed into an even greater problem causing me to get arrested three different times before Christ turned my life around. So when Michelle asked why I couldn’t drive, I was forced to reveal to her that my license was still suspended for my DWI, leaving the scene of an accident and minor consumption charge, all in a night’s work, two years earlier. I figured any woman who would still go out with a guy like me, might just be a keeper. I would find out later she was more than a keeper; she was God’s special gift to me.

Well, I better get back to my studies. I will write another installment tomorrow, and every day after that until June 12th, our anniversary.