My name is Chrissy Tavel. I am a junior at Avon Grove High. One word comes to mind when I think about my past dating relationships. That word is failure. I started dating in sixth grade. I realize now that I was too juvenile and ignorant to know the commitment I was making at the time. Dating is a lot more than just being boyfriend and girlfriend. When you date you are sacrificing a part of you, and I don’t mean physically. You cannot just think about yourself and what you are getting out of the relationship. You have to be prepared to fulfill the emotional, mental, and spiritual needs of the person you are dating. Dating should not be taken lightly and it’s not always fun.

If you can call it dating, I have dated quite a few guys. I can admit now that I, for the most part, used the guys that I was dating. I just wanted to have a boyfriend and wanted to have someone there beside me. On the contrary, I had one relationship where I thought that I was truly “in love” with the guy. He made me feel like I was the center of the world and he told me that we’d be together forever It was a little over a month into our relationship when the devastating truth came in a letter. He slammed me with the subject of giving myself up to him. Well, supposedly he cheated on me, when he went on vacation, so we broke up. I felt so guilty after that and I felt that I was the reason we broke up. I was just not ready for that kind of commitment; there were too many risks involved. He moved on pretty fast I hear. It did take me awhile to get over him, but I finally did.

I dated one more person after that relationship. The guy and I really liked each other, but there was a huge problem. The guy’s best friend had the biggest crush on me. I had known him ever since I moved into where I live now, ten years ago. He was my neighbor and then he moved to a different state. Well the guy that I was dating and I decided that it would not work out between us for that reason. We broke up after a month.

Well after that I was extremely upset. None of my dating relationships had worked out and I felt like I needed a boyfriend. But then it hit me. I needed to refocus my life on God, I had put my relationship with him on hold so that I could have a relationship with someone who I barely knew at all.

I was single for a year and in that year I was trying my best to keep focus on God and I was becoming more and more consumed every day. During that year, I became friends with a great guy. We continued our friendship for about six months and then the topic of dating arose. We have been dating ever since September, almost five months. And although I am happy with him, I know that I don’t need to be dating him in order for me to have a happy life. It took me some time to stop expecting him to fill the hole left from my past, but now that I have God it’s a lot easier. We still struggle. Dating isn’t easy and it never will be easy. That’s why you have to be ready before you choose to date.

I believe that dating is between you and God. I feel that no one can tell you when you’re ready to date, but I also feel that if you are truly a Christian and love God that you shouldn’t make the commitment of dating until you are totally consumed by God. And as I have learned dating a non-Christian does not work. It never will. So don’t! Focus your life on God first and devote yourself to him, then dating can be brought up, but only when God feels you are ready.