Preparing for Marriage: Dating

 "Oh my gosh!!! You'll never guess what happened, mom!"

"What!?!" 

"One of the guys from my science class asked if I wanted to hang out this weekend!"

"Oh, that's exciting! What are you guys going to do?"

"I don't know, probably just get some food and watch a movie at his apartment."

Hello everyone!! Welcome back to my blog! I'm very excited
 to talk about, yep you guessed it, dating and preparing for marriage! This couldn't have come at a better time, with Valentine's Day being next week! 

So, what does dating mean? Does it even matter? It feels like everyone these days never go on "dates" anymore, they just "hang out." But what's the difference between the two? I learned that the difference is HUGE, and it not only affects your courtship but also your marriage as well. See, when you go out on a date, you're paired off with a planned activity typically paid for. When you hang out with somebody, typically you don't plan much about what you are going to do and it's confusing to know what the other person wants or how they feel about you. You usually end up doing the same things when you hang out with someone as well, like watching a movie on the couch. How does that prepare you for marriage? I think we could all agree that the end goal of dating is to eventually get married. Having these planned, pared off, and paid for activities prepares you to preside, protect and provide while in a marriage. Yes, dating does take some effort! But the reward is worth it. What is the end goal of hanging out with someone? To hang out with them again, I guess. 

The next question to ask yourself is, how should I date or go about dating then? The best and probably most effective type of dating is going on many dates with lots of different people and personalities. This will give you a better idea of the kind of person you want to date and what personalities you get along best with. Once you've gone on a good number of dates with different people, you can begin to narrow down the list of people by seeing who you got along with best and maybe go on another date with these "chosen ones" you could call them. Overall, you would want to marry your best friend, or at least I want to!

The best steps to take toward marriage begin with dating. Once you find someone you really like and want to date exclusively, you take a step further and, as they say in the olden days, "court" them or, in other words, go steady with them. The next two steps are pretty obvious, engagement and then finally, marriage. People tend to slide into marriage instead of taking these steps slowly and working toward marriage. A lot of the time, that's why people struggle within their marriage, by not taking these steps more slowly. Everyone wants to fall in love and not necessarily work toward love. But remember, you can fall out of love just as easily as you can fall in love.  

The best ways to have a happy and healthy marriage are to one, carefully select a person based on important values, have a great amount of unselfishness (forgetting yourself and service your significant other), and continue courting each other when you are married (expressing your affection to one another). 

I hope you all have been able to change your perspective on dating and marriage, just a little bit. I know I have! I hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day and remember, even if you think no one else does, God really loves you!!