I am 36-year-old single woman. I met a very nice man a while back. We are both Christians and our faith is important to us. I am very interested in him, but he is really shy. Sometimes it is almost impossible for him to talk to me. He does most of his communication by e-mail. While this is all well and good, it does make it kind of hard to talk face-to-face. I often can’t get him to say more than a few sentences in a row. Any advice?

Advice: It sounds as though your shy guy needs various encouragement to talk. So I suggest you find out the things that interest him most and ask him various questions about these things. Notice what inspires him to talk a bit more sometimes. Bring up some conversation pieces. Talk about your day and ask him about his. Ask him about his high school days, his spiritual experiences, his work, his family. If shy guy is interested enough in a subject, he might forget about being shy. And as you get to know one another better he’ll feel more comfortable with you.

Ah–and ask the Lord to lead you in this matter–and He will!

Dr. Muriel