Craig Groeschel - Love, Sex, and Happily Ever After

Love, Sex, and Happily Ever After clearly illustrates how Jesus Christ is truly the center of every enduring and endearing marriage.

P ASTOR M ARK D RISCOLL , founder of Mars Hill Church, Seattle

Love, Sex, and Happily Ever After is a great resource for anyone in our generation who wants to build a relationship that will go the distance like God intended.

M ARGARET F EINBERG , speaker and author of The Organic God and God Whispers

Love, Sex, and Happily Ever After has the potential to not only change the way you view marriage, but also the way our culture treats it.

E D Y OUNG , S ENIOR P ASTOR , Fellowship Church, and author of The Creative Marriage

With wit and wisdom, Craig will guide you into a gold mine of relational riches.

S HANNON E THRIDGE , best-selling author of the Every Womans Battle series and Completely His

Craig shares real-life advice that is practical and biblically based, preparing you for a marriage that will not just survive, but thrive.

R ICK W ARREN , Pastor of Saddleback Church and author of The Purpose Driven Life

Craig Groeschel says it like it is. Youll be challenged and encouraged by his honesty and humor.

M ARK B ATTERSON , Lead Pastor, National Community Church, and author of In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day

Craig Groeschel is a visionary His leadership capacity has barely been tapped.

D R . S AMUEL R. C HAND , author of Failure: The Womb of Success and Futuring: Leading Your Church into Tomorrow

Craig boldly dives into our cultures many illusions of love and discovers what real love is.

D AVE G IBBONS , Lead Pastor of NewSong

Craig is a man who practices what he preaches. I am always excited to pick up his latest book.

C RAIG G ROSS , founder of xxxchurch.com

Craig fully understands our generations struggles and fears about making love last and provides practical, hope-filled guidance for imperfect people.

J OHN B URKE , pastor and author of No Perfect People Allowed

L OVE , S EX , AND H APPILY E VER A FTER
P UBLISHED BY M ULTNOMAH B OOKS
12265 Oracle Boulevard, Suite 200
Colorado Springs, Colorado 80921

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica Inc.. Used by permission of Zondervan worldwide. www.zondervan.com. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked (KJV) are taken from the King James Version. Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Italics in Scripture quotations indicate the authors added emphasis.

Details and names in some anecdotes and stories have been changed with permission to protect the identities of the persons involved.

Trade Paperback ISBN 978-1-60142-369-6
eBook ISBN 978-0-307-1499-9

Copyright 2007 by Craig Groeschel

Cover design by James Hall

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

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

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

Previously published as Going All the Way.

The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows: Groeschel, Craig.
Going all the way / Craig Groeschel. 1st ed.
p. cm.

ISBN-13: 978-1-59052-938-6

1. Mate selectionReligious aspectsChristianity. 2. MarriageReligious aspects Christianity. 3. SexReligious aspectsChristianity. 4. Man-woman relationships Religious aspectsChristianity. I. Title.
BV835.G745 2007

241.6765dc22

2007021486

v3.1_r1

I s she the one? Four words that shaped my hope. My wish. My prayer.

Her name was Kelli. She was more beautiful than words could describe. Her tan was perfectly golden. Her blond hair couldve starred in any shampoo commercial. Her smile stopped me in my tracks. And her legs Ill just say, praise God for legs!

Kelli was wildly popular, completely feminine, yet also athletic. Confident, yet humble. Exciting, yet pure. Every guy I knew liked her.

I loved her.

Kelli dominated my thought life. Will she go out with me? Go with me? MARRY ME? Have my children? Live with me in ahouse with a white picket fence? You know, for our dog. Not a chick dog, like a Shih Tzu. A real dog. Maybe a black Lab. Or a German shepherd. Named Joe

In my daydreams I was always the hero, rescuing Kelli from attackers using my finely honed nun-chucks skills. I protected her while stranded on a desert island. I kept her warm during a dangerous blizzard. All my fantasies ended the same: Kelli fell in love with me, then kissed me until I couldnt breathe. It was our destiny to be together. Forever. (Can you hear a cheesy love song playing softly?)

Maybe my imagination was getting ahead of me. After all, shed never spoken to me. She didnt even know my name. And, well, we were both in seventh grade.

But trifling details couldnt weaken her magnetic pull. My life orbited around her. The mounting pressure seemed too much for my heart to bear.

Could she be the one?

Youre probably not in the seventh grade (and glad you never have to return to junior high hell again). But that longing for the one is virtually universal. Youve yearned for the one to be part of your lifeyour soul mate, bound by passionate affection and a forever vow.

Does a fulfilling, lifelong commitment exist in your future? You hope so, but maybe youre not sure. When someone cute moves to your school or starts a new job at your office, you wonder, Could this be the one?

Or maybe youre already in love with someone. At this moment all the love songs on the radio make sense. You spend hours in the Hallmark store choosing the perfect card for your honey-pie-love-bunches. (You leave with eleven cards and a stuffed walrus.) For you the question isnt in the back of your mind; its front and center, and you believe you know the answer. I think theres a one for me after all!

But perhaps youre on the other side of the relationship divide, and youre not so optimistic at the moment. Youre recovering from a painful breakup. Disillusioned. You were sure youd met the one. But that was before the lying. Before the drifting apart. Before the restraining order. Before the dude like Jim Carreys character in