Part VI - More Than Friends

At this time of their lives, Sarah and Blake both had their own sets of friends. The difference was, Sarah's friends were much more studious than Blake's, and many had long-distance relationships with guys that they talked to on the phone for hours each night. This meant that Sarah was always free in the evenings, but Blake was often socially entangled. Blake was never the kind to schedule his activities more than one day in advance, and liked to remain uncommitted as long as possible, always favoring the newest, most last minute plans--the complete opposite of Sarah! In those days, many times would Sarah call Blake and ask what he was doing that night only to hear in reply, 'I don't know yet, but it should be pretty good! I might be going over to so-and-so's or me and a few people are getting together to go out... but I don't know! I'll call if I'm not doing anything!' And little did Blake know that this was hurting poor Sarah's heart! She didn't want to wonder if she would be Blake's fall-back plan, even though Blake never once thought of it like that--he liked doing different things with different people as much as possible. In fact, a good (well actually, bad) example was a time when Blake had offers from 3 separate groups of friends to go hear John Piper preach in Winston Salem, and he invited a guy from his class to go last minute. He found out Sarah was going with a few of her friends anyway, so Blake rode with another group and didn't even end up seeing Sarah there at all in all the confusion!
Even though Sarah didn't feel very special, it didn't stop her sweet self from calling Blake and getting together with him on a very regular basis. Blake loved his time with her because she was so sweet and soft-spoken, Blake felt very natural around her and just act like himself.

Sarah and Blake did everything together. Go to Wal-Mart. Eat lunch. Go to the bank. Sweet Sarah was always at his side, and he loved that. Never before had he felt free enough with someone to take the liberty of bringing them along for normally boring things for a second person to do--like go to the bank. Sweet Sarah even sat and watched Blake as he played a video game he used to play a lot called Marble Blast Gold. Blake was amazed she actually seemed to enjoy just watching him play (though it must be said it is a pretty awesome game to play/watch)! This and many other acts of sweetness warmed his heart to her, but more than that was the subject of their conversations.

Sarah and Blake agreed on pretty much everything pertaining to the Bible, theology, courting, marriage, family issues, baptism, and more. It was very encouraging for them to pick each other's thoughts on certain scriptures and issues. Blake had never met a girl more solid and theologically rich, and more suitable for exactly the life he had in mind; namely, missions.

Naturally, Blake got really sweet on Sarah. He began to call her before she had the chance to call him, and when he dropped her off at her dorm at night, he would say something stupid like, 'you know Sarah, I love hanging out with you. You are a real cute girl. goodnight!' Next, Blake did a few silly things that now he wishes he would have done differently. He couldn't (but should have) known the full effect that holding hands when walking and putting his arm around her during a movie had on Sarah. If Blake had wanted to save her some real mixed emotions, and been totally above reproach, he would have asked to officially court her then instead of waiting a month! It was just such a major decision!