Not Today, Greek By Portia Ameyaw
Oh, what a beautiful day it was when we walked through the rose gardens with our hands clasped tight together and our steps perfectly in-sync. The sweet sentiments that he whispered in my ears and the laughter we shared was just wonderful. As we walked together, I prayed a little prayer to the Lord, “Please let him be the one for me.” Throughout my single years, I have cried out to my Savior with the request that He would send me the one that my heart longs for. Now it looked like God had heard my prayers and answered me. Or at least, that was what I thought in the beginning of our relationship while we were going on cute dates and romantic walks. The best part was that this man loved the Lord as much as I did; and he was kind to everyone he met. But the sad truth of the matter was that like many people in our world today, my handsome, faithful man was wearing a mask that hid his true nature. When Greek was around me, he checked every box on the long list I had made and prayed for in a partner. I am a person with good intuition, so after a few weeks of dating without any odd feelings, I sang-out my joyful hallelujahs and starting to really enjoy my new relationship with Greek. Little did I know how quickly things would change. One Wednesday afternoon, while we were picnicking in the park, Greek got a text message that left him very upset. Noticing his distress, I proceeded to ask him about the text message; and to my surprise, he raised his voice and yelled at me. This stunned me, because Greek had never raised his voice at me before. Later that night after we had both returned to our respective homes, Greek called and apologized for raising his voice at me. He told me something happened at work which had him upset. I accepted his apology. “After all,” I thought “we all get mad once in a while, so no big deal.” The days that passed after this unpleasant incident were strange, because Greek started raising his voice and yelling at me again and again over such simple, silly things. The moment that alerted me to the dangers of continuing my relationship with Greek occurred two weeks after the picnic incident. Greek swung his hand and nearly hit me while we were having a disagreement. Luckily, I managed to dodge his attempted punch so I didn’t get hit in my face. But that was enough. If this was not a red flag, then call me color-blind. The Bible tells me that love is not easily angered and that it always protects others. Unless Webster’s Dictionary updated recently and defined the act of throwing hands at someone as protecting them, then count me out. I prayed about the situation, and the Holy Spirit impressed me to let Greek go; and I am so glad that I did. Three days later, when I went to break up with Greek, this handsome, angry fellow began to threaten me and swing his hands in an attempt to hit me. I left as quickly as I could. The very next day I went to court and got a restraining order. Then I praised God for saving me from a potentially bad situation. God had rescued me from the trap that a man who was a wolf in a sheep’s coat, had started to skillfully set once he came into my life. Now, I was safe and free.
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