Eileen passed the huge platter of eggplant Parmesan to Mary Lou. “Now I want to know what all this ‘I’m not talking to God’ stuff is about.”
Mary Lou piled the sumptuous food onto her plate. “Bobby dumped me.” She took a bite of her favorite dish and shifted gears. “Mmm. You sure know how to cook.”
Eileen handed her a napkin. “Don’t you try to change the subject by mooning over my cooking. What happened with you and Bobby? I know he didn’t just dump you. There had to be a reason. Now tell me the whole story.”
Mary Lou wiped her mouth. “There’s nothing to tell. Oh, yeah, get this—he took me out to dinner to witness to me. Can you believe it? He didn’t even know I was Christian. How does that grab you?”
Eileen put her fork down. “Wow. But you are a Christian. He didn’t dump you because you’re a Christian. Tell me the rest. Come on, now.”
“He gave me this song and dance about how he had a long talk with his friend Alex who basically told him I wasn’t good enough for him.”
Eileen frowned at her.
Mary Lou took a deep breath. “I guess there is more to it. Bobby says people who plan to spend their lives together need to start out on the same spiritual level. Bobby just became a Christian on Christmas Eve, and yet he considers himself living at a deeper spiritual level. Men are so arrogant. Then he says that he thinks I might be the woman he wants to spend the rest of his life with, but… I am so ticked off at him. I don’t care if I ever see him again.”
Eileen took a sip of water. “Is that why I haven’t been able to get ahold of you this week, other than texting?”
Mary Lou shrugged. “Oh, that. I’ve been incredibly busy. I took on some extra projects at work. I’m completely reorganizing my filing system and renaming all my files so that they will coincide with Joe’s. Then I started a manual for the other agents to follow as far as office procedure in our department—”
“Stop!” Eileen banged her hand on the table. “You always do this. Whenever you can’t handle something, you dive into work. You’ll reorganize Joe’s files and everyone else’s in the office rather than face the problem.”
“The problem? There’s no problem. Bobby turned out to be a jerk, that’s all. I’ll get over it. I am over it.”
Eileen leaned forward. “You’re not over it—but that’s not even the issue here. You’re missing the elephant in the room. It’s not about Bobby. It’s about God. Think back. Remember when we used to go to church together every Sunday? Remember when you had lost your job, and you didn’t know what you were going to do? And we prayed, and we went to church, and you went home, and you prayed. Do you remember how you leaned on God? Remember how you got this job? They had never had a woman in their sales department until they hired you.
“You cried out to God after that interview because you wanted that job so badly. And because if you didn’t get it, you didn’t know how you were going to make your next house payment.”
Mary Lou got serious. “I do remember that time. It’s been five years.”
“It has been five years,” Eileen said. “Right after you got that job, you got too busy to attend church regularly. I understand that you have to miss now and then, but months would go by. You poured yourself into your work to prove yourself to them. And then you met Bobby.”
Mary Lou went into defensive mode. “I’ve only been dating him a few months.”
Eileen grimaced. “Only dating a few months. True. Listen, baby sister, you had your eye on him for at least six months before that. It took all of your energy to get him to ask you out. And now it’s taken all of your energy to get him to ask you to marry him.”
Mary Lou shrugged. “Well, he never asked me to marry him.”
Eileen picked up where she left off. “No, he didn’t ask you to marry him, but he said he loved you or that he thought you were the woman he would like to spend the rest of his life with. The problem is, you lost sight of God. All you can think about is what Mary Lou wants. You’ve been lusting after this poor man for almost a year. You’ve backslid. You need to get back to God. ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight’—Proverbs 3:5-6. You need to learn to trust God for whatever may happen in the future.”
Mary Lou began to clear the table. “I should have known that you’d start throwing Scripture at me. If trusting God for everything is so great, why are you still single? Why aren’t you happily married to some rich, handsome guy?”
Eileen smiled. “God is my partner. If and when He decides I should marry, He will bring the right man into my life. Until then, I cherish the gift of being single. Being single allows me to focus more on Him. I have a wonderful relationship with Him, and I am happy with where He’s put me—‘for such a time as this,’ Esther 4:14.”
Monday, January 14
Arvada, Colorado
“I could kill him,” Mary Lou shouted into her Bluetooth. Hot breath clouded the frosty windshield in front of her.
“Mary Lou Stots, you do not talk like that,” her sister reprimanded her. “‘Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen’—Ephesians 4:29.”
Mary Lou squinted and brushed the clouded windshield with the back of her glove. “I know it’s wrong. I’m sorry. I wish I didn’t feel this way, but you should have my job for just one day and see how he treats me. Oh, dear God, You don’t have to make him suffer. Just make him disappear.”
Eileen scolded, “Mary Lou, stop talking like that. God’s not the only one who could be listening to this conversation. You’re upset. Now say you didn’t mean what you said. Besides, if Walt disappeared, you wouldn’t have a job.”
Mary Lou felt her eyes drip. “I know it’s wrong, but I hate the man.”
Eileen sucked in a breath. “You need to get a grip, girl. What brought all this on?”
Mary Lou sniffed and turned the defroster on. “I just sat through the most demeaning, demotivating sales meeting ever. Walt viciously attacked me, made fun of me, and embarrassed me in front of the rest of the team. Sure, he owns the company, but he’s not even my direct boss. Joe’s my boss. It’s hard being the only woman in sales. I’m selling more than anyone, yet Walt constantly beats up on me. I don’t understand it.”
Eileen cleared her throat. “Are you at home?”
“I’m driving.” Mary Lou pushed the button on the console to open her garage door. “I just got to the house.”
“I’m coming over.”
Mary Lou drove her Nissan Rogue into her double-car garage. “Thanks, but right now I need someone to take my side.”
“See you in a minute; you know I’m always on your side.” Eileen hung up.
Mary Lou got out
