Dear Pastor,

I am a regular reader of your column and am writing you about a problem. I have a girlfriend. She is pregnant. I got involved with her but found myself not loving her again because she is not clean. She does not like to bathe. Sometimes I have to beg her to go to the bathroom. We don't live together. But she comes to spend time with me I have my own bathroom where I am living. I don't have to share with other tenants.

I go out and come in at nights and she is in the same clothes, lying on the bed watching television. When I ask why she hasn't gone to the bathroom, she said the water is too cold. Every night the water is too cold. Sometimes she puts lotion on her dirty skin.

Pastor, I have made up my mind to leave her because I can't stand a girl who does not want to bathe. I always says I would marry any girl who was pregnant for me. Now I know for sure I can't marry this girl, because I couldn't live with a woman who doesn't like water. I told her she could warm the water to have her bath, but that is not working.

P.L.

Dear P.L.,

You don't need for me to tell you what to do. I am amazed you got her pregnant. At the time when you went to bed with her, was she taking her baths? Has she since she became pregnant? Surely, a woman shouldn't need a man to tell her to bathe. Everyone should know personal hygiene is important. If this woman doesn't like water and doesn't know how to take care of herself, how will she take care of her baby?

Again, I say, you ought to know what to do. I shouldn't have to tell you.

Pastor