Not long ago a friend of mine was going through an emotional dilemma with a guy. She was asked out by a coworker and in her commitment to pursue her personal development and not date, she turned down his offer with a message kind of explaining why in over 140 characters. Needless to say, the guy responded “yup” and that was about it after that. Feeling left in ambiguity about that message, she hit me and our sister up asking what happened.

This scenario is common for women because we are often the ones who are getting approached for dates. If you realize that it’s not your time to date, you’re currently dating or in a relationship, or simply not feelin’ the boy, male or man who has asked you out, you have a right to say no to their request, even if they asked in the most romantic way ever. This is not high school anymore, in which you just go out with people just because they express interest in you. Some of us are open to that, but again you need to know what season you are operating in and find contentment in that. But the topic here is to address the feelings that come after you have rejected a request.

Saying no to someone can hurt the person saying it, because we are human beings with blood pumping in our veins. In a woman’s perspective, we tend to be more emotional and in our issues with handling rejection, we have a bit of compassion towards the person who asked us out. That’s another reason why it’s important to guard your heart with people, because in your moment of attempting to be gracious in rejecting them, the denied person can lash out at you in a certain way out of their rejection and hurt you in return. That’s not always the case of course, but I’m positive that every woman and man has a testimony on it.

If you’re not interested in a boy, male or man, you will get three different types of responses. Read them on the next page.