Friday, January 12, 2007

Teen Dating

Happy birthday to my sister Beth! I hope your day today was extra special! I've been thinking about you.

Today, we went to the park to meet with some homeschool families. That was a very nice treat. I miss the homeschool community in California very much. I guess I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and get us enrolled in some of the activities at the homeschool group here. I've enjoyed the freedom of less responsibility in not being involved in a co-op, but I'm missing the camaraderie.

I got a chance to talk to one of the moms at the park about how they handle teen dating. Essentially, their 15-year-old daughter will not date while they have the care of her. She can go out in a group setting, but no one-on-one dating. This is essentially what we do with Keri Lynn. She is not allowed to date. In fact, we are encouraging her to wait to date anyone until she and the young man are ready for marriage. This means that even through college, she needs to be concentrating on school, getting through those studies, before she gets involved with a guy. We also want to be a big part of getting to know said young man and his family.

She is the only one that we know of in her youth group with such strict rules. The youth group is packed with dating kids, from junior high through high school. There are two couples joined at the hip, and there's a lot of general looseness as far as what the kids wear and how they act around each other that is disheartening, to say the least. Keri Lynn and I both wonder, as we talk about these issues, if we're the only ones that feel so strongly about maintaining purity at this important stage of life.

It is my heart's prayer that our Christian youth will experience a renewal of their love for Christ, and in so doing, change a lot of their behaviors that so easily pull them away from obedience to God. It may have to start with the adults. Gulp.

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