The Secret is Out

Ok well now that my title got everyone's attention... Since the grapevine is still working quite well, not to mention Facebook posts by excited siblings I assume you all already know. But here it is anyway, Beau Cox and I are courting! Now I can just see the curious looks on ya'lls faces already. Courting? What does that mean? How to explain.... In Josh's words,"Definition of courtship:The process of a man's pursuing a lady to attempt to gain her affection,and has matrimony as its goal." That was quoted directly from his Facebook page. In other words my father has given him permission to win my heart with the intention of marrying me. Understand? So now you are saying well how does that differ from dating? Dating focuses on your needs and desires and on having a good time right now. Courtship looks to the future and says is this the person God has for me? Is this God's will for my life? Courtship includes friends and family. Dating has two young people spending large amounts of unsupervised time together. In courtship, however, the young people are supervised by their family and friends which protects them from making mistakes they would regret their whole lives. In dating there is not that safeguard. In courtship you keep your hands to yourself realizing that touching stirs up desires and emotions that you cannot rightly fulfill. With dating there is no such commitment and young people go around doing things that they will regret if they do not marry that person and sometimes regret even if they do marry them, hugging and kissing and hand-holding. Beau and I have both made a commitment to save kissing for marriage. Hand holding should be saved at least until you are engaged and you should have a short engagement. The dating spirit says I like this guy and I want to be with him right now then when you get tired of them you "break up" and go find another one. I personally believe this is one of the major contributors to the divorce and remarriage evil today. Courting encourages the "one man for one woman" principle that God has planned and helps build strong marriages. These are just a few of the differences between dating and courtship. If you have any questions I'll be happy to try and answer them. Or you can find all sorts of info online. Courtship has made quite a comeback among christian homeschooling families. But I'm sure that you guys are more interested in details other than the differences between dating and courtship. Evidently, Beau has liked me and has been praying a lot about me for quite a while. I was completely oblivious. He was my best-friend. I honestly didn't have a clue. Anyway he talked to his parents extensively and told them that he had prayed about me and felt like God was telling him I was the one for him. They prayed about it and made him wait a while. Then in June when we were down there for Beau's graduation and my cousins wedding they talked to my parents. After both sets of parents talked about it they decided to make him wait a while longer. Meanwhile they were all fasting and praying about it. Then Dad told them he felt good about it. He had been restricted to talking to me only once a week. With Dad's permission this restriction was removed but he was still told to wait. Finally, in October a few days after my birthday, after more talk between the parents and talks between my dad and Beau, my parents talked to me. I was surprised! My parents made it clear that they weren't trying to force me into it the decision was mine and there was no pressure. I didn't need pressure or encouragement I said, yes! You see I had asked the Lord to put me to sleep until it was His time. Around Thanksgiving time last year I discovered that I liked Beau. (Thanks Jacob!) I didn't like that at all!!! I prayed and prayed about it. "Lord I don't like having these feelings, puh-lease puh-lease take them away!!!!" That didn't help any. Then it was, "Lord I want to be in your will so if this isn't the guy you have for me then please help me out here!" I wanted God's will and wanted to do the right thing. I didn't want to lose Beau's friendship. So I just spent a lot of time praying and fasting for God's will and anytime you saw me on my face since then that's probably what I was praying about. So when Mama and Daddy talked to me I said yes! And God is so good to us! Isn't He? I love God so much! Not just because of Beau either! So that's been more than two weeks ago. At Thanksgiving this year we are going down to South Carolina to my Papa and Grandma Jane's house. Beau is going to his Mom's parent's for one day then Friday he's coming to my grandparent's house and staying till Monday! Mama told Papa that we're all going courting and he laughed. Anyway that's my secret that's out. See I told you you'd probably already heard about it. I mean that was one of the major topics people talked to me about this weekend. This was also an explanation for any of ya'll who have seen the relationship status change on Facebook. That's about it. I am expecting comments!