As a mom of two sons, both of whom will be getting married, D.V., in the next year, I have been thinking a lot about this subject lately. I have been thinking about it for a long time as the dh and I tried over the past 23 years or so to raise boys to be godly men in this culture. For a time we followed down the expected courtship route of every "good" homeschooling family, but as our young men entered this phase of life, reality hit the fan, so to speak, and got splattered all over all of us!
Now, as my dear friend Cindy has said in her wise and clever way, she hesitates to post about courtship because people have such strong ideas about courtship, and the younger your children are, the stronger your opinions tend to be. So, instead of saying much, I just thought I would share the first part of what should be a series of articles. I read the first part this morning, written by David Bayly. I think he is hitting on something important when he says,
"Scripture tells us that a king should count the cost before sending his army into battle. In the same way a young man should count the cost and weigh the odds before entering the lists of romantic battle. It’s not an easy course. Rewarding, pleasurable, wonderful, yes, but pitched conflict fraught with danger as well...."
And in speaking of the modern "courtship" movement, he makes this point:
"The obvious problem with such an approach is that it doesn’t eradicate danger, it merely delays the necessary battles of courtship and wooing until after marriage—when the stakes are even higher and the costs of failure even greater."
I think there is a lot of wisdom there, and look forward to reading future installments. I hope you'll take the time to read his entire presentation. It is well worth your effort.
He shares his blog space with his brother, Tim (who pastors the church of one of my ds), and I grow in appreciation of them both as I read their writings.
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