Doug E. Pudge

Being A Little Less Vague

You know, I was thinking. I know that over the past couple of months I have been a little vague about some things that are quite personal to me. God has brought me through a great deal of personal healing over this past year. You see, for those of you who don't know, I went through a divorce almost 13 years ago. This was a very difficult time of my life that I didn't deal with very well. I never allowed God in the center of the healing process until this past year. There are usually two ways that people will react to an emotional trauma like this. One is to go and bounce from one relationship to another trying to heal the emptiness and hearthache that comes from divorce. The other is to run screaming in the night from anything that even smells like a romantic type of relationship! This is the road that I chose! I wasn't going to allow myself to get caught up in something that could hurt me like that again. Now, after much prayer and healing I made the decision about a year ago that it was alright to begin the dating process again. There was only one problem.............................HOW? At that time I was a 42 year old single man who had not been on anything that even resembled a date in over 20 years. I knew that whoever I went out with had to be a Christian and had to be someone who I could talk with. Where do you meet these kinds of women, how do you even approach someone? I was clueless. I had shared much of these thoughts and fears with a couple of my small groups. Back in the beginning of Janyary my Sunday night group specifically prayed for me about finding the dating opportunities I was looking to find! Well, at the end of that month I signed up on one of those online dating sites and began the process. Now, let me fast forward. I have had the opportunity to learn about people and find out quite a bit about them before I even have to write a single word to them. The process might not be perfect but it has worked for me. A very non-treatening process that helps people move at their own pace (mine is of course slow).
Long story short (too late), I have met someone who has my attention. Some of you were blessed enough to meet her yesterday. She sometimes reads this blog so I am very careful about not wanting to embarrass her. But we have been out a few times, we email quite a bit and we talk a lot! We are both focused on God and what He is wanting for the both of us individually and together. I describe where we are at as date and wait. Those of you who have met her can see Jesus shining through her and we are both pretty happy with where things are at right now and will leave the future in God's hands.
I say all of that to say this. Emotional pain is one of the toughest things to work through. It can literally stop you from receiving the blessings that God has for you if you let it. That's the thing, this type of trauma can only last as long as you allow it to last. I made a choice to let it stop me for nearly 13 years from finding any kind of happiness in my personal life. God can take and heal any kind of pain that you have. Allow Him to come in and take it away. Be blessed beyond belief today.

posted by Doug E. Pudge @ 11:57 AM