[JenB]

Heh, I remember sitting through a couple seminars and thinking, "Ok, I'll do this and this, but not this..." some of the ideas seemed ridiculous! Like, don't ever allow the couple to be alone. So they're never going to have a private conversation before they get married?

Of course, most of the homeschoolers doing this marry off young. I'm practically an old maid. But... if the daughter goes off a thousand miles and meets someone, is the dad going to fly in and give the boy a hard time?

Very few of the people at the conferences had courted, themselves. That's why Joshua Harris is one of the few speakers I respect, and he seemed to have a more 'moderate' approach to courtship. Dating, as it is practiced today, doesn't work well. I think the valuable idea behind courtship is that it should be to discover whether the two people are suited for marriage, rather than whether you can have a good time.

[TalonDJ]

Josh Harris was a pretty good speaker on the subject. I think something I wrote was in the magazine he use to do. He could speak well but considering he is like a year or two older than me I could not put to much weight behind he sage advice. I went to dinner with him and his dad (in a larger group of vendors) after a con in Chicago one time.

[RosieCotton]

Dating, as it is practiced today, doesn't work well. I think the valuable idea behind courtship is that it should be to discover whether the two people are suited for marriage, rather than whether you can have a good time.

That's the bottom line. One of my brothers is now courting / dating a girl fairly seriously. They're mostly spending time trying to determine if there is anything major they disagree on. Yes, they do go to movies and some other fun stuff, but finding out whether they're suited for marriage is their first priority.

He is disturbed by the fact that most of his friends who are dating seem to spend most of THEIR time together making out or doing things that avoid much conversation...he says it's almost as if their afraid to go into any depth since they'd probably find out they weren't right for one another. But it's a waste of time and emotion, IMO.

[stands2reason]

There's got to be a nice happy medium somewhere between the Dating Game and arranged marriages.

Boy I'm glad I'm married. I never really expected to get married, but as it turned out I had nothing else planned for that particular afternoon, so why not tie the knot?