Harris - I Kissed Dating Goodbye

I KISSED DATING GOODBYE
published by Multnomah Publishers, Inc.

1997, 2003 by Joshua Harris

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from:
The Holy Bible, New International Version
1973, 1984 by International Bible Society, used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House
Other Scripture quotations are from:
The Holy Bible, King James Version ( KJV )
The Holy Bible, New King James Version ( NKJV )
1984 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
The Message 1993 by Eugene H. Peterson
Holy Bible, New Living Translation ( NLT )
1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
All rights reserved.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version ( ESV ) 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by WaterBrook Multnomah, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House Inc., New York.

M ULTNOMAH and its mountain colophon are registered trademarks of Random House Inc.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwisewithout prior written permission.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Harris, Joshua.
I kissed dating goodbye/by Joshua Harris.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-1-58860-157-5
1. Dating (Social customs) 2. Dating (Social customs)religious aspectsChristianity. 3. Man-woman relationships. I. Title.
HQ801.H329 1997
306.73dc21
96-51843

v3.1

To my parents,
Gregg and Sono Harris

I Gave Josh Harris a Chance
by Sam Torode

I WAS A COLLEGE SENIOR , making a late-night run to Wal-Mart and Taco Bell with my friends. As we walked into Wal-Mart, my eyes were drawn to a book sitting on a rack right inside the door. The cover had a black and white photo of some suave guylike a young Cary Grantholding a fedora over his face. I picked it up and started reading the back cover.

Hey, one of my friends said, thats the guy all the girls are talking about. The one that says you shouldnt date.

Once, a girl turned me down because I hadnt met her father and gotten his permission to ask her out. This book must be the source of all the lunacy among girls on our campus, I decided.

He doesnt want us to date because he wants all the babes for himself! I said. What an arrogant jerk.

Little did I know, at that very moment, five hundred miles away, a beautiful young womanthe sort I hoped to marry somedaywas hanging on every word of I Kissed Dating Goodbye. After reading the book, she promised that she would save her first kiss for marriage. A couple years later, she even wrote a magazine article about her decision called (Dont) Kiss Me.

Somehow, I stumbled onto Bethanys article. Still annoyed that all these young women were being led astray by Josh Harris, I wrote a letter to the editor arguing that not kissing until marriage was just too extreme. (I hadnt kissed anyone before eitherbut I hoped I wouldnt have to wait many more years.)

Not willing to let me have the last word, the author wrote back to me. One thing led to another, and a few months later, on a cold January day, we met for the first time. I admired Bethanys principled approach to romanceeven if I still hated Josh Harriss book (which Id never actually read).

During a visit with Bethanys family several months later, I found myself alone for an hour andin a moment of desperate boredomI pulled her copy of I Kissed Dating Goodbye off the shelf and started thumbing through it.

I was expecting to find a long list of rules for courtship Gods way. After a few chapters, I started impatiently skimming ahead. The rules must be in here somewhere! To my surprise, I discovered I Kissed Dating Goodbye isnt really about dating at all. Instead, its a book about following Christ and what that means for all of our relationships with otherswhether romantic or not.

Joshua writes, Every relationship for a Christian is an opportunity to love another person as God has loved us. That sums up the books message. Once we embrace this principle, the rest is just details.

Indeed, my own story proves that foregoing casual dating (and even kissing) just might be the thing that brings you and your spouse together. About the time Joshua came out with his second book, Boy Meets Girl, Bethany and I shared our first kissat the altar.

In the endin a roundabout wayJosh Harris brought my wife and me together. And now that Ive read his books, I admire and recommend them.

Thank you, Joshmy hats off to you.

Sam Torode

Introduction

T HANKS FOR PICKING up this book. Some people never get past the title.

My friends wont touch it, one girl told me. They hear the title and say, Theres no way I would ever do that.

One guy urged me to change the title. More people would read it, he said. Maybe hes right. I heard the story of a confused bookstore customer who asked the owner for a copy of