Casual Correspondence

"Stuggling with an attraction" came my sophomore year in college, when I'd met a short-term missionary the summer before. He was 25 and ahead of me spiritually too. And I remember feeling bad that he popped up in my thoughts far too often while I wanted to keep God first.

My sophomore year in college, a former roommate gave me a piece of advice which I clung to. Since a spiritual bond usually develops into an emotional one too, she suggested any spiritual sharing we did by correspondence--that was the only way then, since he had already graduated, whereas I still had a few years left--be kept casual. In writing, I disciplined myself to keep it down to a few paragraphs at most, although I felt like I could go on "talking" with him for several pages (during the summer, we'd had lots of that, only in person and not on paper). Much happened that following year. In retrospect, I'm so glad for my roommate's advice. He got married later, and we didn't feel awkward about communicating with each other about it.