Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

Mike Farris:
In high schools, middle schools, and even in today’s elementary schools, dating is an expected activity. Often kids feel that they must have a boyfriend or girlfriend in order to fit in with their peers. Rather than subject children to the pressures of the dating culture, many homeschooling parents have trained their children in courtship.

The first principle of courtship is this: all romantic relationships are reserved until the season of life when a person’s ready to be married. In order for a young man to be ready for marriage in a practical sense, he must be able and willing to support a family. And that normally requires him to delay any kind of romantic pairing off until he’s at least in his early 20s—late teens for young women.

When young men and young women reach this age, they’re far more likely to be emotionally and practically prepared for a romantic relationship. By avoiding dating through most of the teenage years and waiting until the season of life when they’re married, young people are free to be friends with members of the opposite sex, without worrying about the pressures of romantic entanglements. Courtship frees young teens to see each other as potential friends, rather than potential dates.

I’m Mike Farris.