Dating!!

So I absolutely LOVED this week’s topic in class, and loved the points brought up about dating!! There were so many interesting thoughts and I learned so much!! And to start off, I love dating! It’s pretty much the awesomest. But there are a lot of problems with people and dating going on right now, it’s kinda crazy. We used to date all the time, but now dating isn’t taken so seriously, and many people have either given up on dating, or just don’t want to. What is dating, or rather, what is a date?? It is a paired off, planned, and paid for event. It’s a pretty cool concept. So the first thing to do, maybe before even going on a date, you should get to know the other person a little. And then, once you know that person, and you’ve been on dates and spent time with them, you gotta kinda decide if you want to date them. And it’s funny because normally (especially up here in Idaho) people think that there is a time frame of when a person should get married. But no, the Lord knows us, and he knows our future spouse, and there is a time and place for everything. And He knows when that time is, so we just need to be patient with Him, others, and ourselves. But something else that is interesting to think about is why you date someone. I think most of the time, we date for “Mate Selection”. We are looking for that one person to come along and sweep us off our feet. But that’s not WHY we date. Dating isn’t all about finding that one person, its more about the experience and the lessons you learn, and the things you not only find out about others, but that you find out about yourself as well. Dating refines people and allows us to try new things and adapt to new situations. We practice for when we DO find that person, and we demonstrate what we are capable of doing. But with that being said, dating is also pretty serious.

Whenever we date someone exclusively, we should be committed to them, and should only focus on them, because dating is a commitment. You should never date anyone exclusively unless you are ready for marriage. Because let’s be honest, dating leads to marriage. But the most important part of dating is knowing someone. Which usually takes about 3 months, and it requires 3 words. Talk, Time, and Togetherness. With talking, you get a mutual disclosure and should feel comfortable talking about anything, like your feelings, hopes, dreams, goals, family, background, and so much more than just the everyday conversations. When you are together, you should be engaging in a variety of different activities, and actually it’s through togetherness, that you truly get to know someone. Time is also very important. You have to be willing to drop whatever it is you’re doing, make time, and serve someone else. And if you truly want to know someone, talk, be together, and spend time with them.

                Now I want to tell you about the Relationship Attachment Model which is so awesome, so don’t fall asleep! The first step to being in a relationship is KNOWING someone. You gotta talk, be together, and spend time with each other, like I said earlier. The second step is TRUSTING someone. You have to be willing to share things that you don’t normally share, or say things that you don’t normally say to that certain person. When you trust someone, you forget about yourself and open up to others. The third step is RELYING on someone. You have to put more strength in the other person. You have to be willing to not only trust them with the things that matter to you, but believe in them, and put your trust IN them. The third step is COMMITTING to someone. You have to be willing to not worry about anyone else, and just stay true to that one person. You are ruling everyone else out of the picture, and are staying true, even if there are others out there. And they need to know that you are committed. The last step is TOUCHING someone. And there is a reason its last. Touch is like glue- once you get it, you don’t want it to leave or stop. It should always be last because touching messes with our brains which is affected by our emotional state. Have you ever noticed that when you’re happy, everyone and everything becomes happy as well? Well of course not everything, but our views change when our emotions change. We just don’t see much of anything else when our emotions control us. Well anyways, those are some pretty cool things that I learned this week, and I’m so grateful that I took this class because I am learning so much, and there’s so many things I want to talk more about, but that would just take forever. But anyways, good things to just think about, and ask myself.