Thoughts on Dating

I've been enjoying my first day of my three weeks off of work in between jobs, and I picked up a book that I borrowed entitled, 5 Paths to the Love of Your Life: Defining Your Dating Style. It's caused me to think more about dating, and to re-evaluate my single status. I'm more open now to dating than I was when I graduated from college, due to several factors. I feel more mature now, more ready to handle the emotional ups and downs of a relationship, though I realize that I will never be completely ready. I also realize that in my ambition to be a missionary in the slums, it may not be a bad idea to find someone before heading overseas. For many years, I was heavily influenced by Viv Grigg in Cry of the Urban Poor, when he shared: "The spearhead of [an urban poor mission] thrust will be those who accept the gift of singleness for some years...We Protestants have lost the concept of the gift of singleness. Marriage has been seen as the only ideal. The biblical blessing on chosen or given singleness has to be recovered. Part of the blessing of that gift is freedom to pioneer in difficult and dangerous places." (pg. 17) I realize now that I may not be one of those called to "spearhead" the movement--perhaps I am called to go, but not necessarily as a pioneer. The ideal of singleness appeals to my idealism and desire for challenge and struggle, but that doesn't mean that it is necessarily God's plan for my life. I recently talked with a young missionary with Servant Partners in Thailand, and he shared how his ministry in the slums would be easier if he had a wife. Easier to identify with the people, and for the people to understand him. (Apparently the mothers in the slum are constantly asking him to marry one of their daughters).

So, we'll see.