I got this topic from a question posed by JennIg.  It's a very interesting question and I have been eagerly awaiting her to post her way of doing it.  Well, this is our thoughts on the matter.  First, let me say our oldest is 16, so we are just now getting to the point where we are having people ask what we are doing.  Dh and I both came out of the whole dating era.  Praise God, He can redeem even us.  We have regrets on top of regrets.  We were wild and I look back and think, oh I wish someone had loved us enough to even consider that we might regret some of these mini divorces (I love that wording).  Thankfully, God brought Dh and I together, and we later found the Lord and here we are.  This leads us to our philosophy on dating.  Let me start by saying we work extremely hard on living and breathing God's Word.  That means when you look at a topic like dating you must go to God's Word for authority on dating.  What does He say about dating, marriage, sons, and daughters?  This is what we have found thus far...Let me say we are not experts on this, it's just what we have seen thus far.  Romans 14:23 says that anything done without faith is sin.  That is powerful in the aspect that you can have a no dating philosophy and not be doing it by faith and it will be sin.  God will not bless it!  So we see from God's word that our children are not to be out dating every boy or girl that they see to be physically appealing.  On the contrary, Numbers 30:3-8 says that our daughter's are accountable to their father while in his home.  We also see that they are to be at home until marriage.  Prov. 18:22 says that he who finds a wife finds a good thing.  That leads us to know that our girls should not be out hunting, as they are to be the ones found.  We feel like for our girls that instead of spending their teen years chasing boys they should be preparing to be a Prov. 31 wife.  As for our son, he will have to be the one finding a wife.  This does not mean that he will be out trying on different hats but he will need to decide what he will find appealing in a wife and be looking for those characteristics.  He will also need to be preparing himself to support a family.  In the last couple of years we have seen these thoughts carried out in several other families and it is an incredibly sweet thing.  We have seen more than one young couple getting married, that their wedding kiss was their first kiss.  In today's world that is an amazingly sweet thing.  We are praying this kind of purity for our children, as well.

I find it ironic, that so many people can have horrible regrets regarding their teen years and dating and so forth, but nevertheless, we are criticized for wanting to spare our children from some of that ungodliness.  I challenge you to look to God as your authority on this topic and everything else.

Blessings,

Trixi

Posted by H0MEFree

Great post. I agree with much of what you said.
In a couple weeks my oldest will be turning 13. We are giving her a hope chest and a very special and rare women's bible. We teach all our children about courtship and appropriate relationships & behavior. And parental involvement in ALL those decisions.

Posted by Michelle32

Yes, yes!
Amen!

Posted by Anonymous

We have been struggling with our #2 son who is 17 and likes a 15 yr old very immature girl. Lots of head butting going on. I needed this. I will try to print it off to give to her. God bless you. DAIRYMAID

Posted by short

I have not been blogging as regularly. I hope you are doing well.

I do love your entry on dating....

Posted by Danika

We've thought a lot about this subject. I appreciated reading more.

Posted by short

Are you still blogging here?

Posted by Anonymous

Have you read Keeping our Children's Hearts by the Maxwells or Family Driven Faith by Voodie Baucham Jr.? If you have not you will love them. They talk about the teens "practicing" divorce. Praise God that He has opened our eyes to such a marvelous plan for our children. Praying that the hearts of your teens will be to God and you as parents only until God brings that Someone into thier lives. Way to go on your parenting, it is my prayer that more parents will accept this call as well!

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