By the time Renée and I got engaged, we’d known each other for over 10 years. We first met at high school, had dated a couple of times during that period and we remained in varying degrees of contact in the years after.
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By the time Renée and I got engaged, we’d known each other for over 10 years. We first met at high school, had dated a couple of times during that period and we remained in varying degrees of contact in the years after.
If you get your relationship inspiration from Instagram, you could be forgiven for thinking that the best relationships are conflict-free. We get sold a depiction of #relationshipgoals where couples are too busy taking photos in the sunset together to be fighting with each other.
If you’ve been involved with Christian dating culture for more than a week, you’ve probably heard some variation of the term “emotional boundaries,” “emotional chastity” or “guarding your heart.” Emotional boundaries are like the Loch Ness monster of Christian dating. Everyone’s heard of them, but no one knows exactly what they look like or whether they’re even a real thing.
In any long-term relationship, you’re going to have the occasional unpleasant conversation. In the two-and-a-half years Renée and I have been together we’ve had our fair share, covering disagreements, family dramas and even past relationships. But without a doubt, the most unpleasant conversation we’ve ever had was the first time we talked about money.
For most people, deciding who they will marry is the single most life-defining decision they will ever make. As Tim Urban points out in his blog post How To Pick Your Life Partner, “when you choose a life partner, you’re choosing a lot of things, including your parenting partner and someone who will deeply influence your children, your eating companion...
In high school, we were all pros at defining the relationship. If you liked someone, you would ask him/her “do you want to go out?” This sentence didn’t literally mean “do you want to go out on a date?” That would be too straightforward. If someone said “yes” to going out, then from that moment on, they were now your...
When it comes to important conversations to have with your partner, there are a few obvious topics to cover – money, family, religion and so on. But one topic you might not have considered (or may be avoiding) is pornography. It’s a topic that has almost certainly impacted your partner. One study of 15-29yr olds found that 100% of the...
The first time I said “I love you” to a girl, I was fourteen years old and it was over text message. I didn’t have a clue what the words meant. “I love you” just seemed like a good way to communicate the hormonal storm of warm, fuzzy feelings that I was experiencing. I definitely wasn’t talking about the love...
I’m a married man! Just over one month ago, Renée and I stood together at the front of a tiny Catholic church in Tauranga, New Zealand. We vowed to be faithful to each other in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, to love and honour each other all the days of our lives.
147 days. That’s how long Renée and I are going to be engaged for. Less than 5 months, all up, but thank God it's not a day longer. It’s not that engagement is bad. For us, it’s been a time of sharing our lives in a deeper way and looking forward to our future together. But it’s no fairytale. Engagement...