I kissed dating goodbye...in high school

Dating. One thing I hate talking about in youth group.

The last couple of weeks we've been talking about etiquette and I finally found out why we were talking about it tonight. I'll try not to complain too much about this reason though. The reason is our leader thinks we need to know this stuff as it will apply to our lives in the near future. I don't actually feel like complaining about it right now. Like most things in youth group, not everything is all about the Bible I guess, so I guess I'm ok with this answer.

Anyways, back to dating. It's an awkward conversation to have at youth group especially if your youth leader is a few decades older than you. Just remember this opinion is coming from a teenage mind, it's not fully developed yet and thus I think differently than adults. I'm kinda actually tired of talking about the differences of girls and boys. We all know boys are really physical and girls are the emotional type. It's just how our brains differ. I think the reason I don't want to talk about dating within my youth group anymore because of the book we read a few months ago called For Young Women Only. That book just made me so incredibly mad at certain points, so I just stopped reading it and stopped going to Sunday school for that amount of time.

Somewhere among our conversations of what women want and courtship, there was the idea brought up that you don't have to date. Well, it's true, if you don't want to, you don't have to. Have you ever read I Kissed Dating Goodbye? I haven't, but I've heard it's pretty good. I have a story to tell.

About three years ago, I was really struggling with some friends who were dating and not really having a good time as a freshman in high school. I felt like a third wheel around them all the time. My mom told me that I shouldn't date in high school because it's too much work. So I decided after all the friendship problems I had with my friends because of their relationship that I would give up dating in high school.

I kissed dating goodbye in high school. I promised God and myself that I wouldn't start dating until after high school. Now I've actually really struggled with this. So many times I want to say God, I can't do it anymore and I just want to break the promises. I break a lot of promises, usually they're small silly promises to my friends like letting them walk a puppy I'm watching. Not good I know, but I also know that this promise I made to God, He won't let me break it as easily as promises to my friends, if at all.

I've had my crushes on guys. Who hasn't had a crush on someone? That's probably what I struggle with the most. As for getting asked out or asking someone out, I'm really a traditionalist and I don't like asking people out. I'd rather have the guy ask me out. Weird, I know. We live in the 21st Century for crying out loud. I've never been asked to go to a dance or asked to go on a date or had my first kiss.

One of the newer girls in my youth group, a freshman, couldn't believe that I have never dated before or kissed a guy. She couldn't even believe that no guys have asked me out. She just kept asking me things. It doesn't bother me that she was asking me all this stuff. It also doesn't bother me that I haven't been out on a date. High school guys are pretty immature and my old youth pastor always told us that high school relationships rarely work out.

Maybe I'm not ready to date yet. I keep telling myself that one day God is going to throw someone in my path. And perhaps I'll be ready then.

I was on Blogger earlier looking at some stuff. I read my Bible verse of the day and didn't think much of it at all. I didn't start thinking about it until just now after youth group. As I was getting ready to write this blog, I realized just how applicable this one is to my life right now. I love it when God does this!

Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 1 John 3:18

Before youth group started, we were all in the sanctuary talking. One of our newest members of the group came in, and the same freshman girl who couldn't believe my dating free high school experience, started complaining and calling him a jerk and stuff right in front of his face. I had no idea this boy was joining our youth group, but I'm really glad he is.

One thing you have to know about this freshman girl is that she is also new. She started coming last year and even went with us to Sun Valley Indian School last year. Not only do I mean she's pretty new to our group, but she hasn't really grown up with God in her life. I remember last year on the plane coming home from Arizona, she was asking my aunt a lot of questions about God that she thought my aunt would be upset about, but my aunt loves answering these types of questions.

This girl reminds me so much of how I used to be. I used to hate a lot of people. I remember when I was a freshmen telling my newest friend of all the people I hated in our grade. She didn't really understand. I think I was being a tad bit prejudice. I was immature back then. I used to complain a lot more than I do now. I used to call people mean names all the time.

I'm hoping that if this girl hangs out with our youth group, she'll see how we treat each other and follow. We all should be loving with actions, not words because love is not just a word, it's a verb.

In a way, this girl reminds me of a little kid or young animal. She sees someone acting a certain way and follows it. Actually it does make a lot of sense to say this. She is like a newborn or child. She doesn't know about God as much as some of us do.

Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation. 1 Peter 2:3

I used this verse a while back while talking to my old youth pastor about youth group problems I was having. I used it as in I'm craving spiritual milk. He said I'm way past the newborn stage. He tells the truth. What I crave is pure spiritual solid foods. Perhaps if this girl keeps coming and keeps learning, she'll also begin to crave this pure spiritual milk, that will eventually turn into pure spiritual solid food.

And speaking of young animals. We have a new kitten in our house and she is probably going to become the alpha animal in the house. She already really gets at our two other cats. They're males. My mom told me that one day while she was outside, our big black cat was meowing for unknown reasons, and this just encouraged the little kitten to start meowing. She probably didn't know why she was meowing, but she was following the bigger cat.