Belle Du Jour
Well-Known Member
Christian dating: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3U-PiGo2X8
Has anyone read this blog post 'My Husband Is Not My Soul Mate'? It's been making the rounds online. What are your thoughts?
If you don't believe in G-d magically dropping your mate into your lap like the stork drops children, why not get out there and date? Whether it's practice or not, how will you get to know someone if you don't get to know someone?
Has anyone read this blog post 'My Husband Is Not My Soul Mate'? It's been making the rounds online. What are your thoughts?
If you don't believe in G-d magically dropping your mate into your lap like the stork drops children, why not get out there and date? Whether it's practice or not, how will you get to know someone if you don't get to know someone?
I didn't want to start a new thread so I figured I would post here. One thing I want to be sure of now is that I'm not wasting time on the wrong guy. My question is how did God tell you that a certain person wasn't right for you? What did God reveal that let you know you either needed to walk away or just wait?
Sometimes I want God to just tell me yes or no but He doesn't so I'm looking for other ways I could find His answer.
...I have no doubt that I will be a hot mess when Jackie walks down that aisle today. I’m a crier. I pretend not to be, of course. I work at an all-boys Catholic high school, so I hesitate to admit this (they sometimes call me “Mr. Leonidas”)(it’s the beard). But I know that this wedding Mass will be such an experience of divine generosity and the explosion of love in that Church will likely break my heart. It will all be a gift—a free, total, undeservedly radiant gift.
So yeah. I’m gonna cry.
If nothing else I write tonight sticks, know that He is faithful. Trust in His plans for your life, especially if you are in a place of hurt, loneliness, or doubt. He doesn’t want us to settle; He wants to give us gold.
Aim to Tell the Story
"Wait a minute," you might say. "Sexuality may be a great gift for people who are married, but what about me? I don't get to have sex. My sex drive is something I have to manage, not something I get to enjoy." It may surprise you that the Bible refers to both marriage and singleness as gifts (1 Corinthians 7:6–7). Your sexuality and your singleness (temporary or permanent) are gifts from God.
Now maybe you think that singleness is not a good gift — kind of like getting an ugly knitted sweater from a frumpy aunt at Christmas; so ugly that you wouldn't even dream of re-gifting it. Or maybe you wish the gift came with a receipt so you could exchange it for the one you really want. But whether or not you're happy about being single, it's important for you to understand that though this gift is given to you, it's not given for you. The gift is ultimately for the church. God gives gifts so that we might faithfully steward them "for the common good" (1 Corinthians 12:7). Therefore, as long as you hold the gift of singleness in your hands, the Lord wants you to steward it for the for the benefit of others.
How can you do that? To begin, the Apostle Paul explains that an unmarried person can focus on the things of the Lord in a way a married person can't (1 Corinthians 7:32–35). Singles have more time and energy to serve the body of Christ and further the kingdom. But that's not all. Singles have a unique role to play in telling the story of Jesus. When, by your sexual chastity, you display the story of the church faithfully waiting for her coming Groom, the whole community benefits.
Singles demonstrate that the things to which marriage, sex and family point are more important than the symbols themselves. Singles testify to the fact that the temporary will give way, in the end, to the eternal. They remind the church that spiritual fruitfulness, spiritual family and spiritual union with Christ are more permanent and precious than their earthly counterparts. There are truths about Christ and His kingdom that can be more clearly displayed by a single woman than a married one.
The way you conduct yourself sexually is much bigger than your own personal life. It has meaning that connects to the cosmic, unseen, eternal realm. To manage your sex drive and delight in sexual continence, you need to understand that sexual restraint is as much and as valid of an expression of the meaning of sex as the sexual act itself. Your sexual chastity contributes to the cosmic story. It testifies to the astonishing meaning of it all.
Understanding that sex symbolizes the covenant union of Christ and the church, that single women tell the story of the bride-in-waiting, and that sexual chastity is vital to the script, should help guide your sexual choices. Things like masturbation, oral sex and sleeping around with your boyfriend don't line up with the covenant story line. Viewing pornography, reading smutty romance novels and watching movies that exalt immorality don't either. So put up boundaries, and do what is necessary to guard your purity. Aim to be a good steward of God's gift. "Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you . . . You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body" (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).