We Date Each Other. We Date Our Kids.

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Now for the blog post o' the day...

I don't think it's really unusual to date your spouse.  If it is unusual for you, I highly recommend trying it out.  You might find out you still like each other :)  But dating your spouse is not what this is about...entirely.

A few weeks back one of the pastors at our church did a message on praying for your kids.  I have to admit, I was nervous before he started.  

Were we praying the right things for our kids? 

 Had we forgotten something?  

Were we covering them enough with effective prayer?  

I had my pen out and ready.  Unfortunately I had left my notebook at home, so I did what any normal person would do.  I wrote on the title page of my bible.  Here's the cliff notes for you...

• Pray for your child to know what they were crafted for.  God designed them to fill a specific purpose.  Ask for wisdom to help uncover their gifts.
• Pray for your child to be a leader and influential.  That they would leave a positive impressionable mark on people that come in contact with them.
• Pray for your child's heart to turn around in times of trouble, because there will be troubled times.
• Pray for your child's future spouse in the same manner you pray for you own children.

All the above points were things that Steven and I have prayed for our kids, but not all of them have we prayed with them at their bedtimes.  I think the one we have left out, because we felt they were too young to understand, was the prayer for their future spouse.

Well, that's changed.  Choosing a spouse ranks right under the acceptance of Christ.  There will be no other person who will know them as intimately as their future spouse will.  And, if that's what we believe then why would we not begin to pray for their spouse together?  So we do.

In addition to praying for Little Man and Little Miss' future spouses (and when I say future I mean F-U-T-U-R-E), Steven and I also felt we needed to begin modeling how they should be treated while dating.  They get to see how Steven and I relate to each other, which on most days is a good example, but we want them to know how they should be treated.  So we booked some dates.

It just so happened that our community hosts an annual Daddy Daughter Dance.  Steven signed himself and Little Miss up.  He purchased her a new dress, got dressed up himself, and doted over her before leaving.  At the dance he paid attention to only her, and made her feel like a princess.  In fact her words were, "Daddy was Prince Charming, and I was Snow White."

{Excuse her cheesy smile.  She's in the weird smile phase.}

As for Little Man and I, we headed to a bookstore.  He loves all things Science and we were there to read any and every book he wanted.  As it got later and later into the evening, we finished up with a deep conversation over a gigantic cookie and Fizz drink.  We shared the snack, we laughed over silly stuff,  we talked about what he wanted to talk about, and we smooched.  Now the smooching won't be happening when he starts dating, but I'm his mom.  I can sneak those in anytime!

On both of our dates, we made sure our kids knew they were a priority and we treated them with love and respect.  It is our hopes that spending the time to date our kids now will pay off when they are allowed to date others.  At the very least, we will have built strong bonds with our kids where we will have influence in their decision making when choosing someone of the opposite gender.