{"id":7190,"date":"2011-06-20T13:14:40","date_gmt":"2011-06-20T18:14:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/?p=7190"},"modified":"2011-06-20T13:14:40","modified_gmt":"2011-06-20T18:14:40","slug":"wiw-singles-and-dating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/2011\/20110620-7190.htm","title":{"rendered":"WiW: Singles and Dating"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

Jared Wilson’s post about relationships<\/a> arrested me:<\/p>\n

“I’m sure there’s a few people who really do only want someone who loves Jesus and will compromise on the rest. But the reason why the vast majority of the people who say this are lying liars is because I’ve watched these same young people date nonChristians, get into unhealthy sexual relationships, basically live like God ain’t watching, and\/or ignore the young people in their relational spheres who actually love Jesus. <\/p>\n

In fact, I notice that the young men and women who do just love Jesus tend to stay single quite a while. “<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Why is this? Why do young men and women who do “just love Jesus” tend to stay single for so long?<\/p>\n

Why doesn’t anybody seem to see what I see in so many of my wonderful single Christian girl friends?<\/p>\n

Why do so many great, godly women get passed over in the dating\/marriage field?<\/p>\n

\n

A semi-related article<\/a> I also read this week talked about another dilemma in the Christian romance scene:<\/p>\n

“TKC student Catherine Ratcliffe says I Kissed Dating Goodbye shows well that “sexual purity is important,” but it also led many of her classmates to “think we should never hang out unless we want to marry. In the 1990s, casual dating was the culprit. [Now] Christian couples will rush into relationships, saying, ‘we intend to marry,’ because they think they are not allowed to date unless they intend to marry.”<\/p>\n

Pressure, pressure, pressure. Ratcliffe says, “If girls do get asked out they think, ‘We have to make this work. I might not get asked out for another 10 years.'” The “if” is big: Christian student after student in four states generalized to me: “Women don’t get asked out.”…”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I think this assessment is pretty accurate. <\/p>\n

While I certainly am not all for casual dating (with casual intimacy assumed), I think one can go too far in the opposite direction. In fact, I think many have gone too far in the opposite direction by thinking they shouldn’t date anyone unless they already know they’re going to marry that someone.<\/p>\n

\n

These things frustrate me for personal reasons, yes, but my frustration is not just for me. I get frustrated when I see so many wonderful godly young women (I say young women because that’s my sphere, not that this doesn’t happen to men) marginalized when it comes to dating and marriage.<\/p>\n

But I am so very glad that God does not marginalize the single person.<\/p>\n

“Neither marriage nor children is a fundamental marker of being blessed of God in the new covenant, as all spiritual blessings come through Christ (Eph 1:3). Nor are marriage and procreation necessary to maintain one’s covenantal inheritance, for those in Christ have an imperishable inheritance in heaven….<\/p>\n

…One’s singleness can be a powerful testimony to the sufficiency of Christ for all things…”<\/p>\n

~Barry Danylak, Redeeming Singleness<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

Don’t forget to take a look at Barbara H’s<\/a> meme “The Week in Words”, where bloggers collect quotes they’ve read throughout the week. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jared Wilson’s post about relationships arrested me: “I’m sure there’s a few people who really do only want someone who loves Jesus and will compromise on the rest. But the reason why the vast majority of the people who say this are lying liars is because I’ve watched these same young people date nonChristians, get … Read more WiW: Singles and Dating<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7190"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7190\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}