[trmcello24]

So me and this girl and I really like each other and we have prayed alot about our relationship. So we have decided to move forward with the relationship, and we've both agreed that we need to keep Christ as the center of this, but I'm not really sure how exactly to do that...comments would be appreciated, thanks.

[adamkaboom]

The best way IMO is to hold each other accountable. Keep yourselves pure in all that you do. And start (or keep) praying together and also keep praying on your own. If you have the option to you could also have a devotion with each other or some type of Bible study. However you keep God at the center of your own personal life, apply that to your relationship and you ought to be alright. Blessings!

[Jordy3738]

God remains #1 to each of you in your individual lives He is the center of your life and the center of her life. He must always be first in order to be the glue that holds everything together.

[FastRedPonyCar]

Originally Posted by adamkaboom

The best way IMO is to hold each other accountable. Keep yourselves pure in all that you do. And start (or keep) praying together and also keep praying on your own. If you have the option to you could also have a devotion with each other or some type of Bible study. However you keep God at the center of your own personal life, apply that to your relationship and you ought to be alright. Blessings!

BINGO.

accountablity is the name of the game bro. The thing that's helped my wife and I the most (when we were newly weds) was reading Christianity oriented dating and relationship books. The few books we read together as a couple laid one of the most rock solid foundations ever on our relationship.

Buy and read this book with your girlfriend.

http://www.amazon.com/Five-Love-Lang...1833466&sr=8-2

The insight this book provides is pretty much groundbreaking for a couple. It explained SO much to us as a couple about each other. All the little things that bothered my wife about me that shes would dismiss as "he's just being a guy" was explained in the book. Same thing about girls. It explains why they do what they do, what they mean when they say things and how to really learn to communicate with each other while keeping everything focused on Christian values.

Daily bible reading is also very helpful. When we were dating, we lived about half and hour apart and we would pick a chapter in the bible, read it, study it and then we would talk on the phone and talk to each other about what those verses meant to us.


If either one of you starts to slip in your christian morals (i e, getting too physical with each other romantically) that is one of the HUGEST tests of your strenght and every time you stop yourselves, the next time will only be easier. I only mention this becuase it's the usually the biggest issue in a relationship. I know it was with the one my wife and I shared. But we made it through it and we're extremely strong as a couple because of it.

But yeah, do an amazon search for dating devotional books or something like that and you'll find countless to choose from. I only mention that one becuase it was the biggest help to us. That and "his needs, her needs" but that's more oriented to the newly wed couple focusing on building an affair proof marriage.

[HAMFIST]

Originally Posted by FastRedPonyCar

Daily bible reading is also very helpful. When we were dating, we lived about half and hour apart and we would pick a chapter in the bible, read it, study it and then we would talk on the phone and talk to each other about what those verses meant to us.
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FAST RED PONY CAR makes some excellent points, my favorite cited above.

As a married guy, the best advice I can provide comes from my FIRST marriage, though. I had married a Congregationalist minister, and found that simply professing the same beliefs is not enough. Intellectual assertions about Christ are no replacement for following Christ. And no worldly relationship or marriage will get anyone onto that path if they are not already. I have become a firm believer that 98 percent of relationship success is in excercising discernment on who your life partner is. And there are certainly those who talk the talk but do not walk the walk, to use the vernacular. If you are satisfied that your wife is a Friend of Jesus as described in John 15:15, and you are as well, and that is who you are honestly at the core of your being, I suspect you have the sound foundation on which much could be built.

In my current marriage, we make time for daily prayer, and get away periodically for retreats so we can get some distance on the things that crop up in every marriage.

The short answer ... make sure each of you is fully committed, not in words but in spirit, to Christ, and that you share the same goal of following Him. After that, it is just a lot of work. I mean a LOT of work.