The Dating Game

How many times have we heard someone say, "you DON'T have a boyfriend!?"
In this day and age, the American culture is centered around the thought of,
"OH NO! I'm single!! I'M GONNA DIIIIEEEE!!!"
Well, I am here to say,
I promise, you won't die.

They seem to start younger and younger. A boy in 4th grade said, "(name) is my new girlfriend! She's a lot nicer than (another name)"
I asked him, " you have a girlfriend?!" He looked at me like I was crazy and said, "I've had 3!"
What is this world coming to?

The peer pressure to have a boyfriend at a young age is sky high. Girls, especially in the 7th grade and up age range, think that if they don't have a boyfriend there is something wrong with them. Or they think they aren't pretty, or smart, or whatever. All of that is not true! Girls, you are beautiful whether or not you have a boyfriend!

Another thing I find disturbing is this:
A girl was talking to her friend about what an awesome boyfriend she has. I asked, "do you plan on marrying him?" She said, "absolutely not! He's great and all, but I would never MARRY him!!"
My thoughts:
Than why the heck are you dating him in the first place!?
And that leads me to the main reason behind this whole post:
Casual dating is just practice for divorce years on down the road. Every time you date someone you give away a little piece of your heart. If you aren't seriously considering marrying that person, why are you dating him/her? By casual dating, by the time you marry, you will have given away so many pieces of your heart you only have a little bit left for your spouse. You won't be able to say, "You're my one and only".

With that in mind, it breaks my heart to see such young people get all torn up because they thought they were in love, and then they broke up. It's so completely unnecessary!

"So how do you avoid that?" you say? First of all, don't "date!" "Well, then how do I figure out he's (she's) the one?" you ask?
Well, you get to know him/her. You should be his/her best friend before you even THINK about "dating." Your future partner will be your best friend, your partner for life. Doesn't it make sense that you should be that person's best friend before you even get into a relationship?

Now, notice I have not said the C-word. Well, I am going to say it now. Do you know what Courting is? When people hear the word "courting" they think of some sort of awkward, strict, "you say you want to court this person and you're as good as engaged" type of thing.
Well, that is a misconception. First of all, before you even begin to "court" someone, (or date them for that matter), you should be best friends, or really close buddies with them. You want to be able to tell them everything. After all, you wouldn't want to marry someone who you don't like spending every day with, right? When you have been best friends for a long time, and you are inseparable, the next natural step is courting. (Or dating the RIGHT way)
When you are courting someone, you take the time to REALLY get to know each other. You talk about what you want your future to look like. You figure out if your views on "religion" and such are the same. Essentially, you are making sure that you really do love this person, and that you agree on the most important issues of life. By the time you have been courting (or dating the RIGHT way) awhile you should have a pretty good idea of whether or not he/she is the one. And if you really take the time to know the person first, and you don't casually date anyone in the process, you have a really good chance of being your future spouses' one-and-only. He/She would be your first love, your first date, and your only partner for a life time.

Isn't that better than having a constant "boyfriend", breaking up and getting back together only to marry someone completely different? You would be able to give your WHOLE self to that special guy/girl.

It's something to think about.