I Kissed Dating Goodbye by Joshua Harris Read Free Book Online Page A

couldn't help it. I was thinking of Gloria. I hadn't seen her for a long time. What was she now? Three or four girlfriends back? Love, huh?
    the first Kiss
    "How does Chinese sound?" I asked as we pulled out of the driveway.
    "Hey, that's great," Eric replied with his typical enthusiasm.
    looking up "love" in god's dictionary 57 I'd only just met Eric and his wife,
    33 Leslie, but had already noted Eric's exuberance and excitement about everything--even my restaurant suggestion.
    "That all right with you, honey?" he gently asked Leslie, who was sitting in the back seat.
    "Sure," she replied sweetly.
    Eric and Leslie had stopped by to visit me during a drive through the Northwest. A friend in Colorado had told me about these newlyweds and the little book they had written. Their book told the story of how they had met and grown to love each other without following the typical pattern of dating.
    You'd be hard pressed to find two more romantic people. They adored each other, and it showed. Eric rarely took his eyes off Leslie. Sitting in the passenger seat on the way to the restaurant, he slipped his hand behind the seat, and Leslie reached forward and clasped it. Holding hands when one person is sitting in the front seat and the other is in the back? I'd never seen that before.
    After dinner, while we cracked open our fortune cookies, I had a question. "You two can't keep your hands off each other," I began teasingly. Leslie blushed. "Was it difficult keeping the physical side of your relationship pure while you were engaged?"
    Eric took Leslie's hand and smiled at her before he answered. "Of course the desire for that was present--it always will be," he said. "But no, it wasn't a struggle. Leslie and I decided very early in our relationship that we were going to refrain from physical contact until we were married. Our first kiss was at the altar."
    My jaw dropped. "You didn't kiss until you got married?"
    "Nope," Eric said, beaming. "The most we did was hold hands. And, Josh, we know that kind of standard isn't for every couple. We didn't make that decision to be legalistic; it came
    joshua harris from the heart. Everyone, even our parents, told us we should kiss. But we both decided it was what we wanted to do. It was a way to show our love, to protect each other before we were married." And then with a twinkle in his eye, he said, "Let me tell you, Josh, that first kiss was the most incredible, beautiful thing in the world. I can't even begin to describe it."
    Eric and Leslie. Jeff and Gloria. Two couples that used the same word--love--to explain
    34 what motivated them to act in opposite ways. were both couples talking about the same thing? For Jeff and Gloria, love justified a night in a hotel room enjoying each other's bodies before marriage. For Eric and Leslie, love meant barely touching each other before they walked to the altar. For Jeff and Gloria, love was impatient and demanded compromise. For Eric and Leslie, love fueled integrity and gave them the patience needed to wait. One word. Two definitions.
    in love with love
    I am, by my own admission, a hopeless romantic. If such a thing is possible, I am in love with being in love.
    There's nothing else quite like it, and if you've experienced it, you know what I mean. Being in love is a patchwork of a thousand indescribable moments. Nervous energy runs through your body whenever you think of that special person, which is every waking minute. You lose interest in the dull chores of eating, sleeping, and thinking rationally. You discover that every love song on the radio was written for you. It seems that someone has removed blinders from your eyes, and you can see the world full of wonder and mystery and happiness.
    I love love. But I've come to realize that I don't really know
    looking up "love" in god's dictionary 59 much about it. Oh, I can tell you all about the warm, fuzzy side of love. I can throw myself into romance with all the passion of Romeo, but in God's