Also, take this time to talk about other rules around your teen dating. That includes what kinds of places the couple can go and what time you need your teen to be home. Keep in mind that some counties have curfews for minors, and those curfews can vary based on age and whether it’s a school night. Teenage dating can be confusing for parents. Your child might not even wait for the teenage years before they ask you if they can “go out” with someone. (https://justsayyes.org/) According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, kids start dating at an average age of 12 and a half for girls and 13 and a half for boys.
If we don’t, then we go through something emotionally — and probably physically — like a divorce. If the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture is true, then God’s Word does have authoritative guidance for us about how we might best glorify God in this area of our lives. That means our conversation has to be a biblical conversation. It is easy to see why there is a movement of parents to replace traditional dating with a formal courtship between a young man and woman. These parents are involved in their children’s lives, seeking to protect their innocence and purity for marriage. However, even with these guidelines, three out of four of our teens had their first real date to the school prom in their junior year at age 17.
One of the more popular questions we hear about religious dating is whether or not dating a non-Christian is a good or a bad idea. While you may be able to explain to your date that you’re not going to sleep with them, in moments of temptation you’ll probably be the only one fighting the urge to go further. You can lower the chance of going too far by dating someone who wants to protect their purity (and yours!) as much as you do. For most of the world, once you’re old enough dating someone means eventually sleeping with them. Give choices with consequences rather than rules with punishment.
Feel free to email me with any questions or comments at The trickier part will be to define what is an act rooted in sexual desire and what is an act that is simply a sign of affection. I will turn away from flirting and playing the dating game. I will turn to courtship, which promotes self-control, moral purity, and responsibility.
Being with a girl or guy will be awkward at first, but dating can help you learn to be comfortable and at ease with those of the opposite sex. Christian singles need more than the purity narrative of “save sex for marriage.” It fails to communicate the greater vision of God’s design for sexuality. That’s a basic framework for biblical dating as best I can discern it from the principles of God’s Word.
Some Christians have even gotten married to non-believers, hoping that they can convert their spouse, but often the relationships end up in disaster. It is love that should drive Christian teens to date, but it should not be the shallow version of love. When you date, it should be taken seriously. You should know the person you are dating and know their beliefs.
Common Dating Rules Parents Set for Christian Teens
If you’re still okay with that idea, then okay. However, if you trick yourself into thinking that they’ll change their religion for you, that’s a bad road to go down. And just how big of a deal is an unsupportive partner? Recent zoosk com tips research shows that unsupportive romantic partners can have negative effects on how your brain functions. What kind of issues might you run into it? These are all great questions and ones we’re going to dig into today.
Why a Christian Teenager Should Date or Not?
Non-Christians have a different perspective on dating. You see the magazines, TV shows, and movies that tell you how you’re young, and you should date a lot of people before you get married. You see certain “role models” jumping from one dating relationship to another.
Yet God has more in store for you than just jumping from one relationship to another. He is clear on whom you should date and why you should date. When it comes to Christian dating, you live according to a different standard – God’s. Yet it’s not just about following the rules. There are some solid reasons why God asks us to live a certain way, and dating is no different.
1Why modern dating is really difficult for young Christians
Consider the Scripture from Proverbs 3, “trust in the Lord with all your heart . Frankly put, we’re navigating this dating scene right next to our child, and our understanding could be completely erroneous. We need to go before the Lord and ask for His understanding of each situation. When we can bring our teenager into that circle of prayer and desire to seek the Lord’s guidance, then we’ve really struck gold- especially if our teenager responds positively. Now, not only are they communicating with us, but they have included God in the midst of their dating. That invites a whole other set of wisdom far beyond our own.
We’ll talk more about these and other passages as we deal with other topics in this series. That’s what I hope this column will be about — applying God’s Word to dating, finding a spouse and getting married. The answers he brings may be different from anything you’ve heard before. The topics he’s going to be dealing with are ones in which equally committed Christians have found different biblical interpretations. Not all will agree with Scott’s approach, and we invite feedback from anyone who believes there are better interpretations for the biblical passages Scott draws from.