Getting Off To A Great Start

Now that you are officially dating and have decided to keep God at the center of all you do, you need to foster your new relationship. I’ve seen relationships rise and fall all within a few hours. I’ve also seen relationships thrive for years. Hopefully you have a great foundation as friends and are thrilled to start the next phase of your relationship!

One of the first things I encourage you and your boyfriend/girlfriend to do first is to figure out a way to do “little things.” By little things, I mean things such as small notes, going for walks around town or even hitting up a food court. To this day, I love when my fiance does the “little things to support me. It’s amazing how much your day improves when you receive something from your “special someone.” During the first few weeks you definitely don’t need to drop $100 every night to make sure that the relationship will succeed (I don’t think I’ve ever spent $100 with my fiance in one night before and probably never will). Guys have this perception sometimes that if they throw enough money at a girl she will stick around. Guys – in Christian relationships it doesn’t matter how “loaded” you are when it comes to money. Your girlfriend should enjoy spending time with you no matter what you are doing. She should love spending time with you because of your character and personality! Girls – help the guys out by making suggestions as to what you think you two should do – trust me – guys will love this! At first they may think that they are “macho” and don’t want you to give suggestions because they feel they can do it all by themselves, but eventually they will love your suggestions (they better!).

I encourage you to start putting everything you’ve given each other into something like a shoebox. Even though marriage may not be in the near future, you’ll cherish these “little things” you give each other in a few years. My fiance and I recently went through each of our shoeboxes and loved every item in there. She went one step further in her shoebox (I suggest this) – she actually saved all the ticket stubs from the concerts and movies we attended (she even had the receipt from our 1-year anniversary dinner!). In a few years, you’ll cherish these things – you’ll be so surprised at how much more intimate your relationship is now!

As far as the spiritual matters are concerned, God should definitely come first when it comes to your relationship. I highly suggest doing a devotional together, although make sure you look through it before purchasing it! When we first started dating, my fiance and I bought a devotional thinking that it’d be great, but it was actually for couples who are about to get married – that made for an awkward conversation at that point in our relationship! Depending on what denomination you are, there are great resources out there for you. Come back soon and I’ll post my suggestions for couple devotionals!