Saturday, April 9, 2011

The Divine Dating Story


Well, I decided I have been annonymous long enough, today I shall share the Divine Dating story with you all. Enjoy!

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Hey my name is Haley! I have a passion for God and teaching God's girls about Christian dating.

When I was 16 God radically transformed every area of my life, especially the dating part of it. Without going into details, I was very convicted about the way I was seeking attention from guys rather than God. A few months later, I knelt in my room and prayed. I prayed that God would take over my dating life and show me his will for dating. I prayed with all my heart that God would prevent me from dating another guy until it was the man I was to marry.


After that night I started to have a real hunger for wisdom in Christian dating. Why hadn't anyone ever talked about this? Why didn't we learn stuff like this Sunday school? So, I read books, lots and lots of books, all about Christian dating. I read all sorts of books, then summer I turned 19, I finished another dating book and as I sat there, I noticed that I had a lot of knowledge accumulated from these books. I can almost guess what most of them were going to say. I knew the rules, I knew what the bible said, I knew exactly what I wanted.


At that moment, God turned a light bulb on in my head and asked me why I hadn't shared that information with other girls. I was immediately attracted to the idea, but a bit nervous. I thought it over for a few weeks, and then decided to do it. One thing I have learned in my walk with God the past 4 years, is that when he asks you to do something, you probablly won't understand it, but you better darn well do it.


So, I prayed and told him I have no idea where you are going with this, but I'm transferring schools next week so open and close doors and lead me through this. So, blindly I found an old spiral notebook and began to write down everything I could think of--everything I had learned about dating that I thought was true and needed to be shared. This process took several weeks.


Then I rewrote everything and organized it a little bit, using another few weeks. After that I felt like God wanted me to put it into some kind of Powerpoint presentation, organizing it even more. So I spent months and months creating a Powerpoint presentation, all the while I was praying daily that God would show me what to do with it. Over time I developed a huge burden for the girls in my hometown, I knew I had to start with them. So I kept praying, when was I going to do this, how was I going to do this?


One day I mentioned it to my discipler and she said well, we get a month off for Christmas, why not do a weekly study and do it then? After looking at my schedule and praying some more, I decided it was perfect! I called up my youth pastor and asked if he thought it was possible and he was thrilled. 2 months later I held Divine Dating: a bible study for the girls of my hometown. We met over 4 weeks, and I shared everything that was on my heart about dating. People all over were praying for the study, and I feel like the girls really enjoyed it.

When some of them missed a night, they asked if I could put the notes online so tehy could review. The only way I knew how to upload a file was through a blog, because we had dabbled in blogging in one of my first semester classes. So, I made a blog, not really knowing what or how to do it, and I posted the notes on there.

After the 4 weeks were up, I didn't know what to do with this blog thing I had notes on. I had prayed about it for a while, and I decided to keep adding to it. At first it was just simple quotes about dating I found, but then it quickly grew into a place where I could share more stuff I had learned or forgotten to say. As time has gone on, I have really gotten into blogging. It has challenged me more than anything, because I study something, then I want to check it and back it up with scripture too. Because I am a public relations major and intern, I have had the excitement of applying new skills to the blog--double teaching me things!

Despite my learning advantage, the sole purpose of this blog is to encourage Christian girls who are both dating and single. I pray that this helps everyone who reads it. Please read, learn, comment, and APPLY this to your dating life! Requests on what to talk about are encouraged! God Bless.


Also, I would love to share my Divine Dating bible study with anyone and everyone! If you would like me to come teach or something you may contact me at dreamincreamin@yahoo.com.


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