Sanctification in Dating

This is Melanie and this is the first time I’ve written a blog for ‘Without Dilution’ & I’m a little nervous. My husband lets God talk through him to you on this blog. I only hope I meet half the standards already set.

This blog that Nathan has asked me to write is on dating & unfortunately I probably have too much experience concerning this topic. I know exactly what you’re feeling, thinking, wanting, etc. & you’re also probably saying something like, “More Rules? Not again…I’ve heard all there is to hear anyway.” Well, you’re wrong this time…I’m actually going to help you find true romance!!

Nathan & I have known each other since we were 6 yrs of age & under. When we started dating a little over 3 yrs ago, we fell in love and got married just 9 months later. Even though we are in the center of his will being married, I still wish we would have gone through our journey a little different. Meaning…I wish we would have made Christ more the center of our relationship, paid more attention to our quality time instead of touching, and dated each other around our friends. Hindsight is always 20/20, but I know that I can make it to where your site is NOW 20/20 and you don’t have to look back w/regrets!

2 Corinthians 6:16&17nkjv says, “…For you are the temple of the living God…Therefore Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord…”. Wow…what a convicting Scripture! So if we can apply the Bible to our every day lives, as we have been taught, then how much should we obey this scripture? So, I’m going to paraphrase this verse, “So if you’ve given your body to the living God and he lives in you…you are his temple…ACT LIKE HIM, NOT THE WORLD!”
The worlds standards or thoughts about dating just keeping getting more twisted as we go along. They think that if you like someone than you should date them, hold hands, kiss, sleep w/them, and then leave them. Well, if we need to be separate than the world, then that means we should do things different than them even if it’s something as “simple” as dating. Let’s look at a few things we can do different.

Our heart seems to be pretty special to God. Look at this verse, Romans 10:9kjv “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine HEART that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” He’s saying that if you just believe then he will guard your heart. I’ve come to realize that if I wouldn’t have “liked” or “fell in love” w/so many different guys and got my emotions all wrapped up in them then I would have so much more of my heart, emotions, and being to be able to give to my husband. I had given pieces of my heart away to different ones I dated that once I decided to give my complete heart to Nathan that there wasn’t much to give.

I can give you a few practical things to do to find true romance. Number 1, don’t date just for fun ha. I had a person tell me, when I was younger just to date everyone I could for fun and have fun doing it. Well, now that I’m older and I see what damage it did to me that person has changed their mind about that one! I know that everyone else is dating everyone else and it’s “fun” to keep up w/the popular kids at school or even your close friends, but the end result is heart break.

Number 2, date in groups. Those were some of my absolute favorite times were when I went on dates when there was a ton of friends around. We never had to regret anything we did, we were definitely ourselves around our friends, and we got to know each other way better cuz there wasn’t any pressure!

Number 3, if you do go on alone dates…make that time to not touch. I know, I know…what a stupid thing, but emotions & hormones rise when touch happens. In fact, God knew a lil something about this…He even put a scripture verse in the Bible about it. 1 Cor 7:1b nkjv, “…It is good for man not to touch a woman.” God knew where things might lead if hearts were not guarded and that we were ending up doing the same things the world does.

At the end of the day God wants you to find the right man for you life. He just has different ways of getting there and it is ALWAYS the best way! If you give your heart to God, He will give your heart to the right man at the right time!! That’s the secret for finding true romance…just let God do it!