Thou Art With Me Read Online Free PDF

then he said, “Sure, I could use the distraction.”
    In the back of her mind tiny alarm bells went off. Dave had been acting strangely since just before Christmas. “Are you okay?”
    “Fine. What is it you need?”
    “Well, I’m going undercover at a couples’ retreat to try and find out what happened to a guy who went missing. Jeremiah and I have to act like a couple. We leave Sunday, and I’m just totally lost at the moment.”
    “About how to act like a couple? That shouldn’t be too hard.”
    “No! I mean, it will be, I mean, never mind. That’s not my problem right now.”
    “Then what on earth is your problem?” he asked, sounding bewildered.
    “I don’t know what to wear.”
    “Are you kidding?”
    “Of course I’m not kidding! This is a real problem. I figured you were married so you would understand.”
    He grunted in reply. She had no idea what that was supposed to mean so she pressed on.
    “I want to wear something alluring. I mean, I’m pretending to be in a couple working on our relationship.”
    “So, you want something sexy?”
    She felt herself flush just hearing him use that word. “Not sexy, appealing, attractive.”
    “Sexy.”
    “No! I want something that will capture someone’s attention.”
    “Like Jeremiah?”
    “Well, yes, he will be playing my...boyfriend,” she said, choking a bit on the word. “And I want to make sure that I look like a woman who’s actually trying. I want to look, I don’t know.”
    “Sexy.”
    “Okay, fine! I want to look sexy!” she said, embarrassed to say it out loud.
    “At least now you’re being honest.”
    “But not slutty or anything like that.”
    “Cindy, there’s about a thousand miles between those two things. Most women don’t realize it because they don’t really get men and how we think. I’m always counseling some of the teen girls who think they’re trying to be attractive and mature and instead are just making themselves look cheap and insecure.”
    Cindy leaned her head back with a sigh. “I think I might be one of those teenage girls.”
    “I’ve never seen you wear anything cheap or slutty looking.”
    “Yeah, but have you ever seen me wear anything sexy? I’m pretty sure I don’t know how.”
    Dave sighed audibly on the other end of the line. “Maybe you should be having this conversation with your father. My father helped all my sisters through this transition in their lives. Granted, they were all younger than you are, but still.”
    “I’m not having this conversation with my father.”
    “Your brother?”
    “No.”
    “And I’m guessing as the object of your sexy intentions Jeremiah is right out.”
    “Yes!” she said, horrified at the suggestion. “Please, Dave. I need help. There’s no one else I can call right now. I trust you.”
    “That’s your first mistake. All guys think about sex. A lot. It’s in our physiology.”
    “Dave!”
    “Hey, you came to a youth pastor for help. You think I don’t have to have blunt talks with kids all the time who don’t know what to do with all these new urges and desires? Trust me, I wish all parents did a great job of dealing with this, but the truth is most of them are too embarrassed to have honest conversations with their kid. So they go into denial about it. You know I once had to have one of the female counselors go with a junior high girl to the store to help her buy her first bra because her mother was in denial that she was old enough to need one?”
    “That’s terrible!”
    “You’re telling me! I was the one the girl started sobbing on because she didn’t know who else to tell. The things she said can never be unheard. But, that’s my job. Kids are raw, honest. They haven’t learned to hide their feelings as well or that there are some things that are just not appropriate to say at certain times. You know a high school kid’s brain has more in common with the brain of a toddler than the brain of a college student? Very little impulse