Safe on a date

Originally appeared on spirituality.com

When I was a college student, I spent one of my summers enjoying the “perfect summer job” working for a hotel on an island off the scenic New England coast. It was an unfamiliar area of the country to me, and I was really on my own for the first time. That summer, I had a chance to prove how our thoughts of God confirm our safety—wherever we are.

One night, I went on a date with a boy who I thought was pretty nice. At the party he took me to, there was the usual drinking, which didn’t bother me since I’d been offered alcohol before at college. I didn’t drink, so I just turned it down. But when drugs surfaced, I felt uncomfortable and asked my date to take me home. He was annoyed, and then became belligerent, which scared me. It was as if his normally kind nature had been erased. My fear increased when I asked a few other people if they’d take me back to town and they refused. Feeling stuck, I walked out on the porch near the sand dunes and began to pray. Whenever I’d faced difficulties before, I’d seen that God provides answers that we need in the form of real practical, reliable help.

Right then, words from a Bible story came to me as suddenly as summer lightning, “and [he] got him out.” It was the instance when Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce Joseph. Joseph declined her advances and was able to escape (see Genesis 39:12). I felt this story had been my answer, so I found the road and began to walk the more than ten miles home. Not sure where the town was, I followed the glow of lights in the fog.

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