Dating or Courtship?

I am in favour of hands-off courtship. Each of my children "kept" themselves for marriage. Our youngest daughter, now a pastor's wife, courted for 3 years, right in our living room, the kitchen, and at church. The others did go out occasionally for a meal together, unsupervised, but came home at a decent hour (long before 10).

One cute memory I have is when my future son'n'law, now pastor, once came calling, he phoned the house and told our daughter he had a suprise and not to eat supper first...well, of course, she thought they would finally get to go out, lol...well, he showed up with his hands behind his back-she thinking "flowers" or a "box of candy"...it turned out that boy brought over his MRE's (meals-ready-to-eat) he'd just gotten in the Reserves. He was so excited to prepare them for her...and my darling daughter, like the lady she is, never let on her disappointment, but hopped upon that stool and 'enjoyed' the fine meal of chicken ala king.

You might go to www.ladiesagainstfeminism.com and enter their website and do a search there for "courtship"...many articles will come up.

 

Good christians can and do both, its all about your definitions.

 

A christian that understands the difference will have no business dating. Dating denotes playing the field. That is not what I believe God wants for us.

Courting is when we are actively seeking the mate God has for us. It is not done casually and is always done with marriage and life long commitment in mind. JMO

 

Once again, that is based on your definitions of the words. Its all semantics. What My wife and I practiced was called dating, by us and our parents, but it was seriously seeking a mate, using Godly standards, with high parental involvement.

Those are the key factors, IF you "Date" while following Biblical principles, your relationships can be approached in the proper manner, and with the proper goals. Nowhere in the scriptures does it say you have to call it courtship, there are a number of different ways to structure your pre-marriage relationships that can and do please God, and allow for safe and wise decision making. If you want to court, fine, just don't impugn those who don't as having no business doing what they are doing. Their behavior may be governed by wise and Biblical principles as well.

 

well said superdave.