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To: Rytwyng
Perhaps you're making the romance part too complicated.

I'm assuming you're male. Any woman worth marrying won't be upset if you're not experienced........and I'm talking about the 'romance'......not sex (God made that part for marriage only, and any 'experience' beforehand is harmful to a marriage and needs to be overcome......fortunately for us, neither my husband nor I came to our marriage with that 'experiences' to overcome).

Neither of us dated much........but did enough to know that its artificiality doesn't prepare you one bit for marriage, and we both strongly feel that it was our friendships.....honest, deep friendships with members of the opposite sex that prepared us better for our own courtship and marriage.

We didn't have any trouble with 'romance' because we cared about each other, treated each other with respect, talked about everything under the sun, including our shared values, life goals, and faith in Jesus Christ, and then fell deeply (and quickly) in love, and not incidentally, are still mad about each other 27 years later.

Dating other people beforehand was almost completely irrelevant to our relationship......then, and now. And I think you'll find that to be true of others who have done the same.

280 posted on 06/30/2003 8:21:11 AM PDT by ohioWfan (BUSH!!! 2004 - Leadership, Integrity, Morality)
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To: ohioWfan
The sad part is, I USED to believe all that. I learned the hardest, most painful way possible that it just isn't true.

The biggest joke of all, is that when I read "I Kissed Dating Goodbye", I realized that, for the most part, that's what I'd been doing all along. I could have written that book myself, except that by the time it was published I'd learned the hard way that it didn't work.

BTW, that book wasn't really anything new, it just codified and collected a lot of ideas that had been fed piecemeal into the minds of a lot of Christians for a long time. I had even come to a lot of the same conclusions independently.

Admittedly, the idea of actually *not dating at all* had never occurred to me, since I had not (AND STILL HAVE NOT) figured out an alternative method of finding and getting to know potential prospects -- but, my approach to relationships was very much like what was described in that book. And guess what: it was a miserable failure. There I was, single, still a virgin, and 35, laughed at as a "geek" by all the girls, and occasionally told that I was "too serious" or "came on too strong"... while other guys got all the girls. Oh, yes, I should mention: Christian girls are frequently the cruelest of all.

Anyway... Something had to change. And it did. My parents had been telling me all my life, to get out and casually date lots of people. Oh no, I protested - I wanted to get to know the girls well first, through Bible studies, etc -- I didn't just want to ask out random women. Stupid, stupid, stupid me -- turns out Mom & Dad were RIGHT ALL ALONG, and the Church folks were wrong. When I finally, angrily snapped, decided to kiss WAITING goodbye, and did it my parents' way, my fortunes started to change rapidly -- I met several good prospects in short order, and was married within 3 years.

The happy ending: My wife and I met on the internet, dated 6 months, were engaged 6 months, and had sex for the first time on the wedding night. That was a little over a year ago, and we are expecting our first baby in October. All of these happy events would NEVER HAVE OCCURRED if I had fallen into the "courtship trap".

Sometimes I feel like I'm talking to a brick wall when dealing with courtship advocates. I hope that's not the case with you. If you are able, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, I beg you, for the sake of the singles who will be so terribly hurt by extreme courtship teaching -- HEAR me on this: The "no-dating" doctrine, however well intentioned it may be, is KEEPING PEOPLE SINGLE who shouldn't be. The fortunate few who grow up in close knit Christian communities, especially homeschooler networks, may have an easy time identifying a suitable partner and setting up the formal courtship mechanism once they do, but I BEG you to open your eyes and realize that this represents a TRIFLING percentage of the population. Courtship is simply NOT AN OPTION for most singles, and by stigmatizing dating you run the risk of keeping people single for life. Biblically, you don't want to do that:

I Timothy 4:1-3 Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.

281 posted on 06/30/2003 5:14:36 PM PDT by Rytwyng
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