Preparing Christian Kids for Dating

Preparing Christian Kids for Dating - Parenting Like HannahIf you aren’t there in your parenting journey yet, you need to be prepared for the dating years of your kids. By the time they are ready to date, you have seen and heard every possible horror story imaginable. You hit your knees a lot praying your children have wisdom and God guides them in their choices. The decisions they make while dating can impact the rest of their lives. Yet most Christian parents have done little if anything to prepare their kids for dating.

Oh, most have the “date a Christian” and “wait until you are married” chats, but few if any parents give real life helpful advice. No wonder so many kids flounder and make really bad choices. That’s why I was interested in the new book The Chase: Trusting God with Your Happily Ever After by Kyle and Kelsey Kupecky.

The Kupecky’s are a young married couple who want to share with young people what they learned about godly dating and marriage. They have a bit of the cool factor as he is a Christian musician and she’s an actress with a couple of movie credits. The book has a very comfortable style as they ping pong back and forth telling about their dating lives before they met and once they met. They share the mistakes they made (nothing horrible really) and the lessons they learned along the way.

Often books written for teens on the subject of dating are so conservative they would be dismissed by the average teen or so lacking in practical examples, teens may find the advice unbelievable. Because the Kupecky’s walk that line well, the book comes across as friendly and doable.

If you are looking for a “courting” type of advice book, this isn’t it. Personally, I love that they give godly and realistic advice at the same time. Much of what they advise is similar to that found in books by Rebecca St. James. Some teens may find this book a little more appealing because it’s a husband and wife writing together. Any teen reading the book gets both perspectives on each topic – so they have a great example of how they should think and act and how the opposite sex should think and act. (Somehow it’s more believable if the writer can say I did it and so can you.)

Although the book ultimately revolves around the idea of putting God first, the authors also cover topics like thinking about the kind of person you want your spouse to be, praying about your future spouse, not just dating for the sake of dating and many more. Each topic is addressed thoroughly without coming across as “preachy”. The advice is practical and the authors are very encouraging to the reader.

My only regret about the book is that it is so good, I wish they had included questions in each chapter so it could be used in a Bible study on dating. Maybe they can tackle that in their next book!

If you are uneasy talking with your child about dating or if you just want outside backup for what you have discussed, I would heartily suggest sharing this book with your teen. Just realize they may roll their eyes. Put it someplace in their room where they can see it and read it when they are ready. Make sure you read it too. Then when your kids are ready to talk about dating, you will have good material to share with them on godly dating (even if they didn’t read the book!).

 

A copy of this book was given to me for free in exchange for my honest review. An affiliate link is included for your convenience.

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Thereasa Winnett

Thereasa Winnett is the founder of Teach One Reach One and blogger at Parenting Like Hannah. She holds a BA in education from the College of William and Mary. She has served in all areas of ministry to children and teens for more than thirty years and regularly leads workshops for ministries and churches. She has conducted numerous workshops, including sessions at Points of Light’s National Conference on Volunteering and Service, the National Urban Ministry Conference, Pepperdine Bible Lectures, and Lipscomb’s Summer Celebration. Thereasa lives in Atlanta, GA with her husband Greg, where she enjoys reading, knitting, traveling and cooking.

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