Question submitted by Liz:  I'm going to tell you the whole story...it was my best friend's surprise party and her mom put in me charge of inviting all her friends.  So I made a list of her friends, even the ones I didn't know, because I wanted all her close friends to come. I had to send the people I didn't know a message on facebook. One of the those people sent me a friend request on Facebook and I accepted him because my friend knew him. He facebook chatted me like two times and we talked very casually leading up to the party.  We ended up meeting each other at my friend's party and talking there.  I was honestly drunk but I remembered everything.  We started dancing and talking and dancing and talking.  We exchanged phone numbers and after the party, we started texting and talking on the phone and hanging out together sometimes after school.   We were at another party together later in the year, and I honestly got a little drunk and he did, too.  He told me there that he has a good time when I'm with him and that he thought I was really pretty, and I was like "aww thanks you're a cutie and you're really sweet".  I was so happy to hear that! He then called me the next day.  I was so happy now that I knew he did like me because he confessed it to me the night before!  But all I can say now is that didn't end up good...  PLEASE ANSWER ASAP!

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Hey Liz! Thank you so much for writing in! And I really appreciate your honesty, too -- that helps me have a better grasp on how to help you!

Okay, sooo... i didn't really pick up on what your actual question was... :-) but i'll just respond to all that you typed about. Crushes and romance are great, and true lasting love is the most beautiful and pure thing in all the world! But crushes can kind-of be like fire. Fire is helpful and wonderful when used in the right doses. It can warm our homes, heat our food and water, drive away predators outdoors... But when it gets too big or too close, it can be destructive! So can young romances. They are fun and wonderful and amazing, but they can really burn us (and leave lifelong scars!) when we give them too much control in our lives.

I have two daughters, ages 5 and 2, and every night at bed time, I ask them not to give their hearts or their bodies to anyone who doesn't love them as much as I do, or who isn't as committed to them as I am (for life!). And I pray that God will help them to guard their hearts from the "fire" of romantic feelings someday. Not that I don't ever want them to date or have boyfriends -- I just want them to be careful, guarded, slow, rational, etc.

I will pray the same for you: that you will guard your heart and your body, and that you will not share them with any man who doesn't love you and isn't committed to you for life. That's the one and only man who is worthy of a gift so precious and valuable as your heart and your body -- the one is loves you completely and is committed to you for life!

One other note: it is ALWAYS a bad idea to mix alcohol and romance, especially as a teenager! And especially for the girl! That's when LOTS of unintended things happen: date rape, STD transmission, getting pregnant... (Sometimes I wonder how far the teen birth rate in America would drop if there was no such thing as alcohol...)

All that is to say, you are not yourself -- you are not thinking clearly and rationally -- when alcohol is in your system. Romance has a stupefying affect on our brains anyway! We don't need to add alcohol to the mix to make us even more bewildered and crazy!

Thanks again for your question, and I wish you all of God's very best in your love life!