When I talk about dating.

A few of you who commented and emailed last week when I wrote about speaking at a college retreat about dating asked to hear what I decided to say.

In fact, some even asked for video footage, to which I immediately thought Nope Nope NOPE… because I talked about some stuff with those girls that isn’t blog friendly. Things that my readers under 17 don’t need to know from me, but stuff that college girls are dealing with, struggling with.

Let me be as blunt as I can be and say that SIN DOESN’T CARE IF YOU ARE A BOY OR A GIRL. So. Some sins that are deemed “guy sins” heap shame on the girls who struggle. And visa-versa.

So we talked about it. But I’m not going to blog specifically about that. But if you’re wondering how honest I got, I GOTZ REAL HONEST.

Ahem.

And now I will blog about the other things we discussed.

I spent a long time not talking about boys. Because if I have learned anything in 30 years of being a single Christian girl, I have learned that the relationship that needs the most focus is your relationship with the Father. No one will love you perfectly, everyone will fail you, but God is so faithful. So we talked about building a life around your dreams and His plans.

I talked about the importance of being healthy- mentally, spiritually, and physically. We discussed how it is not as important to be a certain size or shape, but what matters is that you are caring for the gifts God has given you, and that includes your bod.

And then I told them to trust God.

Then we talked about dudes. Because dudes are awesome and cute.

I shared many of your comments and thoughts, I shared some encouraging and heartbreaking stories from your emails [no names were used, I promise], and I told them to only date boys who share their faith. I told them to say YES when a good guy asks them out [even if they aren’t immediately in love] and I told the boys to get some courage and do some asking out. I told them to be honest and be careful. I talked about mistakes I’ve made and the hard parts of being me. I also told them about friendships with boys and how to handle that particular maze, by way of “I fail at this… like… still.”

And we talked about sex and other things that are not appropriate for the blog. [I mean, the blog is only 4 years old. Earmuffs, blog. Earmuffs.]

Overall, it was a super fun weekend. The students were rad and we played some hilarious games that I won’t soon forget. I loved getting to see my friends David and Jane Scott, the directors of KSU Wesley, and the token single dude James Michael Smith [to balance my token single self].

So all in all, it was a win.

Also, here are some books that I told the girls about. You may not agree with everything in every one of these, but these are some of my favs:

Passion and Purity by Elizabeth Elliot  [The cover is hideous. Don’t judge the book by it.]

Path of Loneliness by Elizabeth Elliot  [You’ll cry. But it’ll feel good.]

Get Married: What Women Can Do to Help It Happen by Candice Watters [Can’t hurt to try. 🙂]

The Power of a Praying Wife by Stormie OMartian  [Ain’t nothin’ wrong with praying.]

Anticipatience by Sharon Virkler  [Um. So good. Like, really.]

Revelations of a Single Woman by Connally Gilliam  [My very fav. I want to be friends with her real bad. LOVE LOVE LOVE this book.]

So there’s the recap. Oh, and I got to spend time at Camp Glisson, which is one of my favorite spots in the great state of Georgia. I sat at the waterfall for about 30 minutes and just sat. It was sweet. Many-a-youth-group memory are housed there, so something in me was quite refreshed by the experience.

Thanks again, KSU Wesley! Y’all are awesome.

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Just a little teaser– Tomorrow we’re talking about GIVR. Preview and then we can discuss.

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