My husband and I had been friends for a few years before we started dating. Pretty good friends. But it was safe, because we were both dating other people at the time. We probably talked on the phone every day for about a six-month period (while dating others), went out to breakfast at the local pancake house from time to time, and, oddly, sponsored a Compassion child together (don't ask).

We started dating a few weeks after we went away to college (different colleges), and, of course, after we both had broken up with our current flames. It was a very sweet courtship at the beginning. I remember when he first offered me his arm to take while on a walk around Trinity (my alma mater). I remember when he first took my hand while on a walk around Oliver (his school). (I was a cheap date, I'm realizing… geez, Beth, hold out for a bit more than touring campuses of private colleges).

About two or three months into the dating relationship, I noticed I was thinking about him all the time. We would talk a few times a day; we would call and let the phone ring only once so the other person knew we were thinking of them; we wrote letters; we sent care packages; we even audio-taped one-sided conversations and sent those to each other. I had an hourly countdown until I would see him again (there was sometimes a two-week stretch between visits), and every hour, I'd cross off a number. Can anyone say infatuation?

Some may chalk it up to young love… but we started having problems in the spring… about five or so months in. And I became… ummm… obsessed. He was all I thought about. The potential demise of our relationship would send me into a tailspin. Things were not right in my world. Even though he wasn't on campus, I still didn't socialize all that much other than with my roommate and a few others, and my time with God was nil.

I remember grabbing my Bible one afternoon and heading out for a walk over by the pond on campus. I knew I needed to clear my head, I knew things weren't right, but I didn't know what to do about it. I did one of those open-the-Bible-to-a-random-page-and-let's-hope-God-speaks-through-something-meaningful things. Thankfully, He did. Here's what I read that day:

I said to the Lord, "You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing." - Psalm 16: 2 

I remember this verse all these years later because it became real to me on a spring afternoon when I was in need of a word from God.