The Importance of Dating

Everyone has been on those awkward dates before. You go on a date and neither of you can decides on what to do. Once you finally do decide on something to do, neither of you have anything to say to the other. So why go on dates in the first place? What is considered to be an actual date, what is the purpose, and what should you be doing on a date?

First let’s talk about what makes a date a date. To help you remember we will use the ‘Three P’s’. The very first thing that should happen for a date to be date is for it to be ‘Planned.’ Like I said earlier, nothing is more awkward, as well as frustrating, then to go on a date just find out that you aren’t actually doing anything. By having the date planned you are showing the person that you value their time and that you actually appreciate them accepting the offer to go on the date.

The second ‘P’ is for the date to be ‘Paired off’. There is nothing wrong with a group date in fact I personally believe that they are more fun, simply because then you have the opportunity to get to know more people. But having the date paired off is very important because then you know who you have responsibility for.

The last ‘P’ is ‘Paid for.’ Now I am a person that feels guilty whenever someone buys something for me and would rather just pay for myself, but I also see the importance of having the date paid for. By paying for the date, just like pairing off, you are showing that you are taking responsibility for your date.

When going on a date you need to be doing things that help you to get to know that person. Along with that, you should go on a variety of different dates with a variety of different people. The overall purpose of dating is to prepare you for marriage and find what qualities you would like in a future spouse. By limiting your dating to one person you aren’t able to realize qualities that that would be important to you in a future spouse. Going on dates also helps you gain good social skills, build healthy relationships, and over all create healthy habits to carry with you into marriage.

To be more specific, how do the ‘Three P’s’ help with fulfilling your roles in marriage? In “The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” we are told that the roles of a husband are to Provide, Preside, and Protect. When a guy plans a date, he is practicing his role to preside. This is because he is taking charge of the date and knows how to be a leader. Paring off also helps with their role of presiding because he is learning how to be responsible for another person, which is also practicing the role of protector. The last one, having the date paid for, helps the man to practice providing for his future family and teaches him to work hard to have the means to provide for that family.

But don’t worry, the roles of the wife and mother are also being practiced while dating. As women, we have the role to nurture. We can practice this on a date by being courteous to our date in showing appreciation for their efforts of putting together the date. Now this doesn’t mean that the roles of providing, or showing interest lie entirely on one gender. In fact, girls can and should ask guys on dates as well. This can prepare us to work together in a relationship and not make it one sided in effort.

By going on wholesome dates, you truly are preparing for marriage. The way you date is actually practice in which you are creating habits that you will take with you into marriage. You can either create good habits or bad ones, so make sure that while you are on a date you are uplifting one another to be the best you can be!