Dating or Courtship?

    

      In the last post, Our Story,  an almost obsolete concept was introduced as I referred to how Mr. Awesome and I officially started our relationship. Courtship.  He asked me if he could go into courtship with me and I gladly agreed. Yes, it does sound like something from the 1950's and our society has gradually pulled away from the concept in favor of dating, but it was very beneficial in that we got to know each other on a deeper level without certain distractions that come with regular dating. Now, I will not claim that neither of us has never experienced dating before, because we have, but the courting aspect was so much more beneficial when it came to us and I am very happy that we did it that way.
    

*Dating:  an engagement to go out socially with another person; often out of romantic interest.
*Courting: to try to gain the love or affections of; especially to seek to marry

     Much like courting,  dating begins with the act of socializing and learning another person in a way that may determine if it is something that you want to pursue further.  However, with dating the issue comes when the sequence of learning a person is turned upside down and it takes on  the typical "try on for size" approach. In a lot of cases, a person (male or  female) will date the person, use their emotions, bodies, and waste their time without any real prospect of a permanent future.  With dating, it is believable that you can "try it before you buy it" and no one gets hurt.  If we look around, it is evident that the "nobody gets hurt" part is not true. Sometimes people escape with emotional scars and sometimes people escape with scars that they have to deal with for life.  Sometimes people get stuck in relationships where they wonder 'where is this going" after they have played the role of "wife" or "husband" for years. My personal "favorite" memory of dating is the waiting game.  Some years ago, I was once in a situation, where I was being told whatever lie needed to be told in order for me to stay in the situation while the guy decided on what he ultimately wanted to do.  PSA: Ladies, if a MAN really wants to be with you, it does not take him years upon years to do it.

    I am so glad that Mr. Awesome came with the best "game" ever.  When he asked me if he could court me, I was happy to know that he was the man I had been praying for and he had enough respect for the two of us that he did it in an honorable way. Most of the things that society tells us to do, we did not. We actually waited until our wedding day to have our first kiss.  We put off a lot of self gratification in order to keep our vision clear and our respect for each other. It was definitely not easy, let me tell you, but in the end it has been well worth it. . . . . . . . Please respond and let me know what you think about dating or courting.