When should you start to date (or court)? Here are three tell-tale signs (among others) that you're ready:
1. Your authority figures give you the green light.
I heard from a girl recently who wrote:
I like this dude, and he happens to like me back. One day after school, we talked, and he told me that he likes me, and so I told him I like him, too. I have heard from many people that he is going to ask me to be his girlfriend . . . and that's where things get crazy. My parent will NOT let me date. And if they find out that I am dating . . . let's just say that I will die. LITERALLY. I am not dating him right now, but I just have a feeling that he will ask me . . . and I don't know what to do. I really like him, and he likes me. This is very rare!!! When ur crush likes u back . . . Rare. My friends are like, "Just say yes, and just don't tell your parents," but I am like, "They will find out!!!"
I can relate. I told her:
We have a lot in common. My parents had the same rules . . . plus some. Growing up I thought they were totally unreasonable, and I dated behind their backs (and was always discovered). Now, looking back, I can see that God was protecting me from myself through my parents. It sure wasn't fun in junior high and high school, but now I am SO grateful I wasn't allowed to get my way. I actually ended up dedicating my book to my parents. Here's a little taste: "[Thank you] for keeping such close tabs on me during those tumultuous teen years! At the time I thought you were just plain ol' mean, but now I can't thank you enough for sparing me a harvest of regret."
You'll end up being grateful, too, for those strict parents. Even though you feel anything but gratitude now, know this:
- God promises to bless those who honor and obey their parents (Eph. 6:1–3). And He always keeps His promises! It's not just a suggestion; He commands it. If you disobey your parents, you're ultimately disobeying God.
- If this guy really, really likes you, he will wait for as long as it takes. And if he is the kind of guy you want to end up with long-term, he will NOT encourage you to disobey your parents.
God promises to bless those who honor and obey their parents. And He always keeps His promises!
Please, please trust me. Going behind your parents' backs will only end in regret. And if you already have, it's not too late to get out.
Let me add that just because an authority figure says you can date whenever you want doesn't necessarily mean you should. Maybe this authority figure isn't currently making the wisest decisions. In this case, ask yourself if you're ready for marriage. That's right. Marriage.
2. You're ready for marriage.
That's the point of dating, after all. Ben Stuart explains it like this: "Dating is not a status. It's a process (of evaluating a person for marriage)."
That doesn't mean you'll necessarily feel completely ready for marriage, as in, "Oh, yeah, I got this covered, no sweat." But you're actually at a point in life where you're old—and mature—enough to get married. You don't have something else you have to complete first, like a big chunk of schooling.
Scott Craft (a contributor to Sex and the Supremacy of Christ) says:
The practical advice I give the singles at our church is, if you cannot happily see yourself as a married woman in less than one year, then you are not ready to date.
But what if I met someone super special, you ask? And they actually like me? Shouldn't I do something about that?!
Why would you, if marriage isn't even a possibility?
I've gotta side with Scott and with the writer of the Song of Solomon on this one. Over and over throughout the book the warning is given, "Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires," or until the appropriate time (2:7; 3:5; 8:4).
Song of Solomon 8:7 explains why: "Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot sweep it away." And as the verse before says, "It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame."
God knows that if we don't wait to experience true love in the safe context of a God-blessed marriage, we will get severely burned.
Can you imagine a blazing forest fire that several rivers worth of water cannot extinguish? That would be one intense firestorm. God knows that if we don't wait to experience true love in the safe context of a God-blessed marriage, we will get severely burned.
Better to build healthy ways of relating with all guys and to pursue your relationship with Christ at this stage in life. You will not regret it. Promise.
Another way to know if you're ready to date is . . .
3. You have pursued and served God wholeheartedly as a single, and now a godly guy is pursuing you that you think you could be even more effective in serving Christ with as a team.
In the biggest section of Scripture on singleness and marriage, Paul writes,
In whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God (1 Cor. 7:24).
I like how Gary Friesen explains this in Decision Making and the Will of God:
Make it the goal of your life not to change your status, but to serve God as effectively and energetically as possible in whatever state you are. The contemporary poster says it well: "Bloom where you are planted now!"In declaring this principle Paul was not forbidding marriage for single people or freedom for slaves. If the opportunity comes along and it is expedient to take it, do so (7:21). His point was that people tend to concentrate on the wrong things. They pour their energies into changing their condition for their own sake rather than into changing the world for Christ's sake (p. 293).