Here’s a typical conversation between two single women:

“So how did it go with [insert guy’s name here] the other night?”
      
“Oh, it was great! It was just the two of us. He picked me up, treated me like a queen. We really clicked. It felt like a date! We had a blast.”

It felt like a date. That’s a phrase that should set off all kinds of alarm bells among single women. If it “feels” like a date, then no one has said it’s a date. It’s just two friends hanging out, but one of them wants more. In this scenario, the problem is that while the man may be clear in his own mind about his intentions (“just friends”), the woman is not. She’s hoping for more or “dating him in her mind.”

This may seem like a harmless distraction, but it’s really not.

I have a friend who once observed that our interactions with men should be like a peanut butter sandwich. No one likes to eat a sandwich where the peanut butter is all clumped up in one corner. We like our peanut butter to be evenly spread around. “So, honey, don’t get all clumped up in one corner, distracted by one guy,” she said. “Spread yourself around! Let him get clumped up around you!” We had a good laugh at that, but there’s much truth in this homespun advice. Because our churches often provide the context to get to know single men as friends, we women can start investing more significance in these interactions than is wise. We get all “clumped up” around one guy -- until he says something or does something to make us realize he’s not going to pursue. Then comes the disappointment.

In our defense, I have observed when men go through all the motions of dating without declaring their intentions. I’ve seen men “try on” certain women and then fade away if there wasn’t enough spark to attract them to pursue. I’ve seen men hang out with women for years as extremely good friends, seemingly oblivious to the potential there, while the women struggle to guard their emotions and expectations. While I think we can become wiser about evaluating the men in these situations (which we’ll look at next time), all things start with our own hearts. Because I’ve been “clumped up” far more often than I’d like to admit, I’ve learned to discern the symptoms of this tendency in my life. Here are some questions I ask myself whenever I think I’m starting to “date someone in my mind”:

• Do I talk about him a lot to other people?
• If these other people don’t share my enthusiasm, and even caution me to not cultivate expectations, do I feel deflated and resent their input?
• Am I going to this event or meeting primarily because he will be there?
• Am I distracted in church or small-group meetings because of his presence?
• Do I break other commitments because he’s invited me to do something spontaneously?
• If he doesn’t talk to me or single me out at events, do I go home disappointed?
• Am I jealous of the women he does talk to or serve?
• If he declines one of my invitations, am I tempted to feel rejected?
• When he does pay attention to me, am I so oriented to him in a group setting that I don’t consider the needs of others around me?

When we get stuck in a man’s orbit like this, typically we’re laying claims and forming attachments that are deadly to our spiritual growth and witness. Because these attachments are one-sided, when the relationship doesn’t occur in the way or time that we want we usually respond sinfully.