When you go on a date, make it a threesome—don't forget God. Maintaining your closeness to God is as important in dating as in academics and athletics.

It isn't frivolous to take just a few moments before leaving home or dormitory to draw close to God. No one is too self-assured to do without a humble request for grace to act in a way pleasing to Him. Selfishness, arrogance, willpower, and lust will then have no place in thought or action. You can be yourself—God's man, whose happiness is spiritual and deep. Then you're free to see the best of yourself and give the best of yourself. This affirmation of man's unity with God leaves you free to respond to His directing. The Bible states it this way: "The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord. ... A man's heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps." ^{Prov. 16:1, 9;}

One experience in my high school years illustrates this. It was a girl's-choice dance party. What the band played sounded more like noise than music. I only knew my partner from class. The whole evening was beginning to drag. It was saved, though, when I remembered the quiet thoughts I had had with God before the dance began. These thoughts were from Mrs. Eddy's poem:

I had thought about the gentleness of God's presence. At the moment, though, that divine peace and joy seemed a long way off. But I knew God's power was supporting this uplifting of consciousness, in spite of all the noise and boredom that seemed to crowd out spiritual qualities. As I thought over Mrs. Eddy's poem again, I prayed to God, recognizing His control. I became less aware of the bedlam and more aware that I could contribute to the happiness of both of us. As a result, she and I had a good time for the rest of the evening, right on the dance floor where I'd been so bored before.

Maybe someone's wondering if a desire to enjoy yourself isn't a selfish attitude. The right kind of enjoyment is a response to divine Love. We're acknowledging God as the source of our joy, and we're sharing it. There's no false sense of self involved. We're blessing those around us by radiating spiritually-based happiness, rather than being artificially keyed up or else being bored—both purely negative states.

God's love is constant; His happiness doesn't turn on and off. He doesn't share His love with some of us and withhold it from others. All have the divine right to feel His love. When we are expressing that love, we don't exclude anyone by being unkind, indifferent, or self-righteous. A date can be our opportunity to touch the heart of someone who is shy, lonely, and unhappy. This isn't a small thing. It's contributing to the solution of the world's biggest problem—people's seeming inability to relate to God and to each other.

Perhaps we are the ones who feel shy or lonely. But why should we, since God's love encircles us? There is no inferiority complex in Love, any more than there is a superiority complex. Divine Love possesses every beautiful, wonderful quality. The realization that Love's expression, man, also possesses these qualities dispels shyness and loneliness. We then want to reach out in Love's own way. The giving way is Love's way. Mrs. Eddy writes, "Wholly apart from this mortal dream, this illusion and delusion of sense, Christian Science comes to reveal man as God's image, His idea, coexistent with Him—God giving all and man having all that God gives." ^{The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 5;}

Sometimes our friends may use alcohol and tobacco as material crutches to get through an evening or simply to consider themselves socially acceptable. Either way, this reliance is a robbing substitute for reliance on God. It is incompatible with Christian Science to expect God to be the source of our joy in one instance but not in every instance. Spiritual understanding gives us the assurance necessary to say, "No, thank you, I don't drink," with real conviction that encourages others to find their freedom from alcoholic dependence.

A friend of mine, a Christian Scientist, works at a country club during vacations. Often she is invited to dinner by members, in lieu of a tip. On one occasion she was offered an alcoholic drink, which she politely refused, explaining that she was a Christian Scientist. A brief discussion of Christian Science followed, and her hosts refrained from drinking that evening. None of us can know how deeply our stand for freedom may affect others.

Parties can't fail when we accept the presence of the Christ, Truth, which is always joy-giving. Jesus was more closely identified with the Christ than was anyone. He lived the Christ to bless others. Mrs. Eddy defines "Christ" as "the divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error." ^{Science and Health, p. 583.} Jesus exemplified the Christ in rebuking sin and healing physical ills and filling every human need. He did this wherever he went, even at a wedding party. Why shouldn't a social event include the Christ?

The more we walk and talk in praise of God—and dance in praise of Him, as did King David—the better our relationships will be. Our relationship with God can't be severed, nor can any friendship based on spiritual attraction. Any activity that brings us closer to Him is a healing one. As we share the peace and joy we find in our awareness of the Christ, our happiness multiplies. We don't pray just to have a good time. We pray to bring God's happiness to all our friends.