Man Enough For Me by Rhonda Bowen

and God. But there were some things she did want to ask about.
    “Pastor, how do you know God’s will for your life?”
    “Well, a lot of that is in His word,” Pastor Thomas began. “And the more you walk with Him, the more He speaks to your heart and shows you the direction to go.”
    Jules wasn’t quite satisfied.
    “But how do you know?” she persisted. “What if it doesn’t feel right?”
    Pastor Thomas chuckled. “Well, Jules, I think that’s the case for most of us at first.”
    Jules looked up at Pastor Thomas in confusion.
    “Just look at some of the people in the Bible. Jonah, Moses, even some of the disciples. They all were hesitant about following God’s direction in their lives. Some of them didn’t even like what God was asking them to do and tried to escape it.
    “But going outside of God’s will never works for anyone. We only end up with heartache and pain. But when we follow Him we are assured of a successful ending.”
    “I don’t know,” Jules said, thinking about her situation with her mother. “Sometimes you try to do everything you know to be right but things still seem to be going wrong.”
    “No one said it would be easy,” Pastor Thomas continued, placing a reassuring hand on Jules’s shoulder. “But that’s where faith comes in, Jules. We have to trust Him though we can’t see. Trust that He knows what’s best for us.
    “And when you have doubts, you take them all to Him,” Pastor Thomas said.
    Taking her hand into his, Pastor Thomas looked at Jules with kind eyes that reminded her of what she thought a true father’s eyes should look like.
    “If you really want to follow God’s will, Jules, He will lead you right to where He wants you to be,” Pastor Thomas said earnestly. “And you can guarantee that, wherever He leads you, something beautiful will be waiting.”
    Something beautiful.
    Jules liked the sound of that. She could use something beautiful in her life. She thought of Germaine.
    Maybe she was closer to it than she thought.
    Now if only God would do something about her mother.
    “Okay, girl, spill it. I want all the details.”
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jules said, trying to ignore the inquiring looks Maxine and Tanya were shooting her.
    She knew she would have to explain exactly what was going on with her and Germaine eventually, but she was trying to delay the inevitable for as long as possible. In fact she had spent all morning dodging them at church. But as soon as the service was over, they had accosted her.
    At least they had the decency to wait until Germaine left before they started the interrogation. Jules was still a bit surprised that he had even shown up. When she had invited him over the phone the night before, he had mentioned he might be busy. She knew he was pretty involved at his own church, and so she hadn’t expected to see him. But when he slipped into the pew beside her at eleven o’clock, she hadn’t been able to stop the smile that hijacked her face.
    “We’re talking about you and Mr. Hotness getting all chummy. Did you think we didn’t see the two of you sitting together during the service?” Maxine asked.
    “And I know you don’t think we don’t know about all thedates you guys have been on—even though you didn’t tell us about it,” Tanya said in a voice that hinted at feelings of betrayal.
    “Geez, you guys wanna talk a little louder? I don’t think everyone out here heard you,” Jules hissed, looking around the emptying churchyard to see if indeed someone might have been eavesdropping.
    “Girl, please, ain’t nobody listening to you. All these people thinking ‘bout now is their bellies,” Maxine said.
    “And stop trying to change the subject,” Tanya added, as both she and Maxine followed Jules to the far side of the parking lot where Jules’s car was parked.
    Heavy gusts of wind coming up from nearby Lake Ontario whipped at their legs and made walking challenging, but they