random thoughts

I remember the situation pretty clearly considering it was 1982. A kinda cute boy in my grade in school came up to me and started chatting. I was surprised cos I was kinda geeky, yeah? I was surprised that he seemed nervous and even more surprised when he asked, “Do you wanna go with me?”
For those of you who aren’t 41 or thereabouts, that meant “Do you wanna be my girlfriend?” in that way that is uniquely junior high. We didn’t kiss or any of that other stuff. I’m not even sure we held hands. I don’t think I’d ever considered really liking him before that moment. But, I—geeky Loralee—had been asked to “go with“someone! It was the biggest shock of my short life. I was so thrilled that I said “Yes.” My thrill was short-lived, however. Not 24-hours had passed and we were no longer “going together.” It wasn’t me who got dumped, either. It was Landon. I went home that night and spent a good portion of the evening writing him a note explaining why we couldn’t continue “going with” each other. I’m sure I didn’t sleep well that night and looked for him immediately upon my arrival at school the next morning. However, it was much later in the day before I finally saw him. I went to him and handed him my painstakingly created note. Then, for whatever reason, I got the guts to tell him how I felt to his face. He took it quite well, really. “That’s okay” he said without a hint of sadness in his voice. “I only asked you out to make Tammy jealous.” I might have been shocked. I don’t really remember. Nothing he said would have changed things anyway. The reason I had broken up with him was solid. And it was this: I didn’t want to disappoint my mom.
A few weeks or months before that day, Mom and I had a conversation during which she informed me that I wasn’t allowed to “go steady” with a boy or have any dates until I was 16. I probably wasn’t too keen on such a restriction, but—in reality—I didn’t really have any boys lining up ready to ask me out or anything—until THAT day. You can imagine that once the shock wore off, I realized clearly what I’d done. I’d disobeyed my mom. I remember planning to keep the whole affair a secret from everyone because I’d known it was against the rules. Imagine my surprise then when—on the way home from school that afternoon—the following words popped out of my mouth: “Guess what, Mom? Landon Vetter asked me to go with him.” A smile popped onto my mom’s face and into her voice. She was quite pleased with this milestone. She said something to me—I can’t remember what exactly—which made me realize that she presumed I had said no. Well, why wouldn’t she? To do so would have been breaking the household rules, wouldn’t it have? I never let on that I’d said yes and when we arrived home, I immediately went to my room and began writing the break-up note.

For some reason, tonight—during Bible Class (sorry Jamie)—the memory I just shared with you flashed into my mind for a moment or two. Just after it ended, I thought “Wouldn’t it be nice if we were all so tender-hearted and fast to repent when it came to the wrongs we do our Father in Heaven? Ah—wouldn’t it just? How fast am I to notice my wrongs and mend them? How fast are you? Something to ponder, yeah?