I didn’t think I was until seeing him last week formed a
knot in my stomach. You know, the knot—the butterflies that dance in your
stomach.
As he walked away from the counter, my coworker asked, “Would
you date him?”
My response was a simple, “Do you think he believes?”
You know you’ve changed when your reactions change. Months ago, a handsome face or a great sense
of humor would have been enough to not only peak but to keep my interest. Now, it’s a much different story.
Over the summer Sandy Wilson from Second Presbyterian came to Fellowship
to preach. I love him. I’ve heard him preach when I used to visit
Second Pres, and this sermon was no
different, delivering as much wisdom as all his others. In his visit, he gave me some really great dating advice without even meaning to. He said:
As Jonathan Edwards preached in
his famous sermon,
"Praise is the chief employment of Heaven, and if we're not worshipers,
we're not going to enjoy Heaven at all."
If someone complains about only believers going to Heaven, I say,
"Well, would you like to just worship all the time?" "Well, gosh, that would be
boring." "Well, you wouldn't
like our Heaven, so you wouldn't want to go anyway." That's what it's all
about...you see my point and the point of the Scriptures. For a Christian, worship is the first thing
and the number one priority."
If you don’t want to worship God, why would you want to
go to Heaven? That’s all we’re going to
be doing.
If you don’t want to worship God with me, why would you
want to date me? That’s all I’m going to
be doing, bringing glory to His name.
Some friends have faulted me for not giving non-believers
a chance. “Oh, you think you’re better
than them,” they say, or, “You could always bring them to Christ, why not give it a
chance?”
Not dating a non-believer is the greatest mercy I could
have.
It’s the greatest mercy I could have on him, and
myself. And I don’t think women
understand that. By dating a
non-believer, we’re putting ourselves into a really difficult game, where the man is supposed to be the spiritual leader, you're assuming his role. And while I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, or can’t
happen, that a man will find Christ by way of his wife, it is definitely a
struggle—one in which you have to weigh your futures and the weight of the
unknown, and how important it is to you to be led.
Don’t get me wrong.
Attraction matters. It does.
Butterflies matter. But they’re
not the only element.
I need a man who gets my heart racing, yeah, but also one
whose spirit is racing with me to finish line of glory.
