Hi my name is Lindsay Pincin, I’m 16 and a junior at Avon Grove. I was in the 5th grade the first time I got asked out and even though I had the biggest crush on him, I was scared and said no. Later when I was thinking about it I wondered why I was so scared. I looked at other girls and saw that they were happy but when I looked closer I saw that they had the same hole in their heart that I had, but they were using guys to fill it. I knew that guys couldn’t fill that hole, so I asked myself what could, I tried friends, grades, and family. I was so desperate to find something permanent to fill that hole. Around that time I started coming to Ground Zero and I saw people who were happy and had what I wanted. Later I realized that they had Jesus and he was the only thing that could fill that hole. I wanted what they had and decided to give it my everything. All the energy that I use to put in guys I put into my relationship with God. That took my life on a complete 180. For the first time I felt complete and I wanted to go deeper. I read the book “I kissed dating goodbye” which talked about the plan God has for you, I decided to give up dating and wait on God’s time so that I could focus my life on God’s will.

Today I still don’t date; because I know that God’s will for me right now is not to date and to enjoy the only time in my life that I am single. And when I do start dating I wont do it the worlds way, which has you change from guy to guy, I want to date the way God wants me to, on his time with another Christian, headed not for a physical relationship but for marriage. I have se4en what the effects of dating non-Christians can do to your relationship with God and how easy it is for them to pull you down. The bible tells us that if we are dating someone who is not a Christian their ideas will in a lot of cases win and pull us in a direction other than the one that God wants us to go in. Another thing that I have seen is the effects of a physical relationship too soon in dating most times you will mistake that attention for love and end up going to far, which will effect you not only now but for the rest of your lives. I don’t want that kind of love, I want the love that God has planned. 1st Corinthians 13:4-7 says, “Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand it’s own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it’s been wronged. It is never glad about injustice, but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful and endures through every circumstance.” That is the kind of love that I want. That love is the God intended love that he has planned for the person he has picked out, and when things aren’t so smooth that love is still there. Another verse says that you are to serve each other and put their needs before your own, in the world’s way dating, you put your own needs first and most of you have heard this “If you love me, you’ll do it,” that doesn’t sound like care for what the other person needs. I have chosen to give up dating to best serve God, but that’s not for everyone.

And even though I have given up dating to serve God, I still struggle with temptations, if some really nice guy, someone I could picture myself going out with comes along it’s hard not to think about him, and picture myself going out with him. But I think about God’s plan and how if that’s the I’m suppose to be with then God will put him in my life when He thinks I’m ready. SO for now I will have to be patient and continue God’s will.