I will start with PROTECT.
Why courtship and not dating? I like courtship because I hope to stir you girls away from the destruction that comes from shallow “going out”; this is the seeing what you can get from the other person and then breaking up when you tire of them type of dating.
I want to encourage waiting to “date” until you are ready to marry and with the purpose to see if this is the man God has for you. That would be my definition of courtship: getting to know someone with the intent to marry.
Now courtship does not start the day a man asks your father if he can get to know you better. It starts NOW! There are four P’s that start NOW, they are: Protect, Plan, Project and Prepare.
The first thing you can do now is protect your heart. Proverbs 4:23 “Above all else protect your heart.”
I understand this is not easy with EVERYONE asking you if you have a boyfriend and All your friends enjoying the attention of cute boys. Yet, this is a choice you will not regret—where casual dating includes a lot of regrets.
Protecting your heart means keeping it whole for your future husband, not giving pieces of it away.
Protecting your heart means not giving your heart away in relationships or in fantasies. It is not just girls that are dating that are giving away their hearts. Determine what awakens your heart to fantasy and deny yourself; all with the goal of keeping your heart whole for the man you plan to spend the rest of your life with.
Tomorrow we will look at the second P: Plan.