Part 3 is here.
Part 4 is here.
Part 5 is here.
Part 6 is here.
Here’s what I like about the courtship movement:
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| Frederic Soulacroix, PD-OLD |
We live in a society which is saturated with at least two
predominant things: loose sex, and divorce.
The obscenely predominant promotion of non-marital sex is reaching a
younger and younger demographic all the time.
We now have twelve year olds who think that they should be “dating”. It is clearly absurd.
There was a time when young people were expected to graduate
from high school, get married, and start families. It was what life was about. They were expected to abstain from sexual
relationships until their wedding night.
After that, they were expected to stay married, through thick and thin, (and
marriage always has “thin”). It worked. Nowadays, they are encouraged and expected to
do exactly the opposite of each of these things. It is not working. Simple as that.
The courtship movement has helped to refocus Christian
individuals and families on what works…and what matters. This is a good thing.
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| By Relative of Infrogmation (Family photo inherited by Infrogmation (talk)) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons |
The movement has returned us to the benefits of a time when
life transitions were, to at least some extent, communally guided and facilitated. A healthy and caring Christian community has
much to offer a young couple making this most momentous decision. The community can also provide protection and
boundaries as a couple navigates the choppy waters of an emotionally intimate
premarital relationship and the temptations that come with it.
It has given young people the impetus to avoid a greater cultural
framework that says that one is defined by ones “relationship status” and
sexuality. It has also, to some extent, reaffirmed and validated a
woman’s role as wife, mother, and helpmeet, and invalidated a greater cultural
mandate that a young woman reject this path.
You can bet that no young man will be entering our daughter’s
life, even after her looming 18th birthday, without a discussion with, and approval from, her father. If a young man is not fond of the concept of time
spent around a close knit family, then he, by her own declaration, is not for
her. He will be respecting her chastity
and accountable to her father for guarding it.
That’s the way we do things around here.
She has, heretofore avoided any “relationship” or even dating, because
she considers these things preparatory for marriage, and she has not yet come
across anyone that she has considered a candidate for that role. Much of the courtship approach has been put
into practice in, and is anticipated to characterize, our daughter’s transition
into adulthood and marriage. However, I do have some reservations about
certain aspects of how the courtship movement has played out in at least some
corners of the Christian community...
Linked with:
Handful of Heart Mondays, Welcome Home Linkup @ Raising Arrows, Domestically Divine Tuesday @ Far Above Rubies, Teach me Tuesdays @ Growing Home, Encouraging One Another @ Deep Roots at Home, Homemaking Linkup @ Raising Homemakers, Women Living Well Wednesdays, Homemaking Link-up @ A Wise Woman Builds her Home, Proverbs 31 Thursdays @ Raising Mighty Arrows, The Modest Mom
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