My first official date was at the ripe old age of 16. I’m on the verge of 41. That’s a long time to play the dating or mating game. I’m also divorced. That means none of my relationships before this point have led to “Happily Ever After”. That means I know the ups and downs of meeting a person and losing a person, by choice or by circumstance. That means I’ve had my less than fair share of tears. That means I’ve been on the “break up, then make up, then breakdown” rollercoaster more times than my tummy could handle. That means I know how it feels to have to pay part of your life’s savings to have someone who you didn’t want to leave you leave you. I know the goings on of meeting one family after the next thinking that finally you would be “home” only to be excused or excuse yourself from their association. I know the anxiety of a first date together and the anxiety of your first day alone. I know. I know. I know.

But what I also know is I would choose not to be stuck in the land of “Woe is me”! I would certainly not be mad at God or the men He just so happen to have created with whom I just so happened to have shared my time. I would not be bitter and start a venomous chapter of the “She Woman Man Hater Club” that would only poison me. I would not let the trek to the right one be tainted just because I had to take the long road to redemption. I would not be clothed in fear of the next failure. I would not chat and chew with my girlfriends about how men are dogs, how I don’t need a man, how I don’t want a man or the likes. I dare you to join me.

Regardless of what has happened to you, when the time is right, I double dog dare you to love (again). Part of that dare includes the fact that loving again may mean you having to love yourself again, taking a leap of faith to love the same person again or stepping out to unchartered territory to love someone new. Regardless of what scenario is yours, proceed with caution, being very prayerful and careful. Move with God’s timetable. Get yourself some help to heal. Be chosen wisely. Prepare yourself in your alone time. Realize any role you might have played in the failed relationships and fix it. Forgive yourself and others. Purge of the past. Look for the good and learn from the lessons that did come out of past relationships and get back in the game of love. 

I Double Dog Dare You! -Angela Moore