For my 21-year-old self, the decade ahead brimmed with endless possibilities.
Thanks to a scholarship I secured before university started, I didn’t need to think twice about what degree to take, what internships to do, or what job to apply for.
There’s one thing I need to warn you about. You’re going to struggle with lust, and I’m sad to say that a lot of it will stem from these three lies that you will—or already—believe about sex and intimacy.
Dating is fun. There’s no doubt about it.
But for us as believers, Christ is the foundation of our relationship. Here are three keys to keeping Christ at the centre of our relationships.
As a teenager, I’d lie in bed and wonder what my future husband was doing at that very moment, wherever he was in this world. He was breathing, blinking, thinking, living, and I wondered: When would we meet? Would I know that he was the one?
We did everything we possibly could to be pure before the Lord: we read articles and memorized verses, prayed and reflected over each struggle, and instituted physical boundaries. Yet almost every single time we met, everything we’d learned flew out of our heads.
If you struggle with lust in your courtship as we did, I’d encourage you to take this season of self-isolation to pray and discuss with your significant other the basics—or what I call the ABCs—of pursuing joy in the Lord, and fighting sin.
My husband and I have been married for more than half a year now. Before that, we were in a courtship for just over two years.
“What do you find the greatest joy in?”
I paused, thinking about what puts a smile on my face, what keeps me going every day, and what gives me the most happiness.
“I suppose I find the greatest joy . . . in you,” I said softly.
“Me too.”
It didn’t happen immediately, but so gradually and subtly that the both of us were completely oblivious to it. We became so blinded in our love for each other that we didn’t see it coming.
When I began working full-time earlier this year, I struggled with the long hours and intense work. Having been a student pretty much all my life, adjusting to the transition of #adulting was—and still is—painful.