I have been reading alot about relationships recently. Relationships have been at the forefront of my mind a lot. I have had many talks about relationships with people recently. Why? It’s just one of those things in life that interest me. If I could choose one word to sum up everything about life, it would be relationships. Relationship with God, relationships with others, relationship with yourself; these are the things life revolves around right? These are the things that can send us to the mountaintops as well as the valleys. As Jesus said, the most important things are loving God and loving others as you love yourself. I have learned a lot from my relationships. They have each played a role in shaping me. Right now I just want to focus on man and woman relationships, more specifically dating and such.
There are tons of terms out there having to do with a relationship between a man and a woman. Courting, Dating, a mixture of the two is Dorting (no joke), Casual Dating, ‘Hanging Out’, Hooking Up, Friends with Benefits, and there are probably some more I am leaving out. Because this following Jesus thing is a lifestyle, it’s gonna influence all areas of my life including my opposite sex relationships. If I am taking my relationship with Him seriously, then how I ‘date’ or ‘court’ or ‘whatever’ will be influenced by Him.
So what exactly does this mean following Christ and dating? How does my relationship with Him influence my relationship with her…or him if you are a girl? There are so many ideas floating around out there in the Christian sub culture about these issues. There are numerous books on How to Date like Jesus (exaggeration), and Courting is of God and Dating is of the Devil. I do believe that the Bible does have great advice when it comes to ‘dating’, but I don’t think there is a list of guidelines you have to follow. I do not plan on giving my future father-in-law 20 camels and some sheep in exchange for his daughters hand in marriage. I am not planning on pulling an Isaac and choosing a wife because she gave some water to my servant and my camels.
I think dating or whatever you want to call it means investing in a relationship. I don’t think God created relationships so we could take them casually. And I’m just gonna go ahead and say it, I don’t think God is a fan of hooking up or anything of that sort. I remember reading a few years ago what Jesus said about lust and it totally changed my life. He said that if you even have lust in your mind, you have already committed adultery in your heart. So the question isn’t how far is too far with a member of the opposite sex. Is 2nd or 3rd base the stopping point? The question is how can I follow Christ more in this relationship. I plan on talking more on lust in a different piece.
One thing that troubles me with relationships is when I see others who expect for a relationship to complete them. It’s just untrue. How can some faulty person complete another faulty person? Here’s another one: why do so many relationships end because one person just lost interest in the other one. Everyone is interesting; I think it has more to do with getting what we want out of someone else. I have a lot of more ideas and topics I want to write about regarding relationships, but I will save them for a later date.
1 comment:
Hey Matt, this is Jon Young from high school. I really am glad that I got a chance to read your thoughts. They are something that I need to read, and I feel like He made me come across them. I will read more and comment more as well.
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