Seven Blessings

It started out simply enough. I needed to have her brother's blessing to date her. Then her best friend, Sarah. Then her parents. Then her tennis buddy, Olivia. Then her rival, Mara. Then her professor, the legendary Dr. Luper. Her brother, Jonathan. Seven blessings. And of course, I had to be certain that The Lord would bless it. And one more stipulation would follow, but not until she finally caved.

                 (I had a lot to prove)

A few of the blessings were easy. Mara agreed pretty quickly and her brother seemed to like me, offering his blessing with conditional reluctance that I'd better be good to his sister. Her parents were harder to win over. Though her dad said she was a grown woman capable of making her own decisions and her mom said I was a nice guy, but needed to prove myself - a task not easily accomplished considering the surprising opposition that came our way. I'll get to that.

Dr. Luper called her up to the front of the class to give his blessing, and Sarah had to see me interact with her in a lot of different environments before finally saying that I was the first and only man she'd ever felt comfortable telling her best friend to be with. Olivia gave her approval and that was that. But Jaclyn still wasn't sure.

  (Nothing worth having is easy to obtain)

Jonathan gave me pointers on winning the approval of their parents. And I took his advice. But things sort of got off to a rocky start.

                 (Dragons beware!)

Jaclyn finally agreed after a whole month of dodging my advances. But there was a condition. And to this day, we have been abiding by it.

                     (Never boring.)