258 Great Dates While You Wait

258 Great Dates While You Wait
By Susie Shellenberger and Greg Johnson
Broadman and Holman. 152 pages
ISBN 0 8054 6177 9

Do I know anyone who can burp out the theme to Star Trek? This is one of the many questions I asked myself as I read 258 Great Dates While You Wait. It is one of the things you are advised not to do on a date, alongside mentioning funny smells or talking about relatives serving time in the State penitentiary.
Believe it or not, 258 Great Dates is a book of serious intent. It comes from the much maligned True Love Waits stable in the U.S. This is a Christian group committed to encouraging young people to say no to sex outside marriage - an idea which really upsets permissive cultures like our own. Well, what do you do on a date if you are not doing what the Bible forbids? Many Christian young couples of my acquaintance do a lot of baby-sitting, pizza-eating or video-watching. The first of these may be a useful service to others, but can be dull or, in some cases, unhelpful to purity; the second can be bad for the figure or the funds; the third, as this book points out, is absolutely no help to building a relationship.
258 Great Dates, on the other hand, is packed with suggestions on how to have good old-fashioned fun while getting to know each other better.
This book is exceedingly user-friendly in its presentation. Few visitors to our home have resisted picking it up from our coffee table and having a browse and a smile. Its main drawback is that it is somewhat locked up in American teen culture: it presupposes the car and the chewing gum. But there are some gems here, from setting up a miniature golf course in the house, to feeding ducks and washing cars. There are ideas for all seasons and pockets; there are cultured suggestions and public-spirited ones, and there are lots of hilarious negatives. The book is strong on the fifth commandment but the style is not preachy.
There are some good rules here to enhance any Christian marriage: e.g. it is easy to make someone feel inadequate if you criticise or compete to win at everything you do. Do you like the shirt he/she 's wearing? Say so! Listen. Listen. Listen. Have you discussed last Sunday's message with your date? If not, what are you waiting for?
And remember, never try to impress him (or her) by inhaling a spaghetti noodle through your nose and into your mouth.

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