[audiorat1]

being introvert is not a good excuse for not making friends. All relationships sprout from friendship.
I can use that excuse for all kinds of stuff......especially dating....
Beside all that, you're 24? chill ...this is the best time for you to serve Him.
Seek FIRST the Kingdom of God and His Rightteousness and All these things will be added unto you....

[1twelve2]

Do you oppose having non-Christian friends?

no, certainly not

I don't think that a dating relationship starts out as a "deep and meaningful" relationship. It grows into that after time.

I agree

Maybe you look at it differently, but usually people start out as friends before they date.

agreed.

I guess its semantics, because I look at it as "Hey you sinned because you took her on a date and she's not Christian" and see that as foolish.

i'm on w/u on the same page here.

But I agree that, "I'm pretty serious in my relationship with this non-Christian" is wrong.

agreed again.

Basically what I'm saying is that casual dating with non-Christians, maybe some would just call it friendship, is not wrong.

people just have different definitions of these terms "dating," "friendship," etc. ...I think this is where we ran into trouble.

[Jay42]

Hey Kyle! Long time no parlez !

I will lift you up in prayer, as I have been thinking of you and your situation.

Let's acknowledge that sometimes God people calls people to celibacy. However, I don't believe that's your calling. You dig girls waaaay too much.

Ya know, it IS harder to meet new people these days: as I mentioned on another thread, technology is a paradoxical thing because it is drawing the world together, yet it is driving neighbors apart. When I moved to my home a year and a half ago, I never learned my neighbor's names until I really forced the initiative and introduced myself by running up to them during the fraction-of-a-second I saw them entering their house. (please forgive my American spelling of neighbour)

So with people keeping to themselves as they do, it is a pickle - how do we meet new people?

For each person, the answer is different. Maybe you can visit an evening service at your local mega-church or go to one of their small group studies, while still staying loyal to your home church on Sunday mornings? Maybe you can get your extraverted brother to invite groups of people to the movies and bring you along? Maybe you could take an advanced language course at a university that has 95% female enrollment?

For now, I can only lift it up in prayer my man! But I will be thinking of you.

[ericbdougherty]

I agree totally 1twelve2. I must try to be clearer. Thanks for your understanding. Sorry for dragging this so OT. How did we get here?

[Yojimbo]

Originally Posted by mattslope

I got the distinct impression that marriage is a necessity, and that being 24 and single is something to avoid. This would lead to the conclusion that one is not complete as a single person, and that validity is found in marriage. Sad.

It doesn't help that Christian culture, unless you're a "crazy" devout missionary, views you as a deviant if you're in your older years and are single. I could see a lot of churches not hiring a 30-year old single male as youth director.

[mattslope]

Originally Posted by Yojimbo

It doesn't help that Christian culture, unless you're a "crazy" devout missionary, views you as a deviant if you're in your older years and are single. I could see a lot of churches not hiring a 30-year old single male as youth director.

I would leave that church, and shake the dust from my feet.

[BillSPrestonEsq]

Originally Posted by mattslope

I got the distinct impression that marriage is a necessity, and that being 24 and single is something to avoid. This would lead to the conclusion that one is not complete as a single person, and that validity is found in marriage. Sad.

Well, Matt, I know you are not going to like this, but Genesis describes man without woman as the one thing in his creation that was not good. Paul describes a gift of singleness, and if you are in that rare breed, more power to ya, but scripturally, the vast majority of us need human companionship of a spouse. For a helper, for a companion, for temptation, for many other things. Marriage should be normative. Yet Paul and Jesus were not married. Peter was. We see in this that both the married and unmarried have a place in ministry, but to need someone is not bad. It sounds like Kyle is not called to singleness. To hear your level of contentment and commitment as portrayed, you might well be. I don't know, I am certainly neither God nor omniscient. But Genesis portrays a norm where man needs women.

[Grasshopper359]

Originally Posted by Jay42

Hey Kyle! Long time no parlez !

I will lift you up in prayer, as I have been thinking of you and your situation.

Let's acknowledge that sometimes God people calls people to celibacy. However, I don't believe that's your calling. You dig girls waaaay too much.

Ya know, it IS harder to meet new people these days: as I mentioned on another thread, technology is a paradoxical thing because it is drawing the world together, yet it is driving neighbors apart. When I moved to my home a year and a half ago, I never learned my neighbor's names until I really forced the initiative and introduced myself by running up to them during the fraction-of-a-second I saw them entering their house. (please forgive my American spelling of neighbour)

Funny, I was just talking to my mom about that last week, how as a society, we're more global but exponantially less interpersonal - drive-through bank machines, internet banking and e-commerce, home theatre, MSN, self-check out machines in the grocery stores, yadda, yadda, yadda. And the difficulty of this is that it caters to my isolationism. I have to go out of my way to go into the bank instead of using the machine, to stand in line at the store and talk to a real person. As frustrating as it is for me to talk to people, I find machines much more irritating...Which is strange, considering what I do for a living.

So with people keeping to themselves as they do, it is a pickle - how do we meet new people?

For each person, the answer is different. Maybe you can visit an evening service at your local mega-church or go to one of their small group studies, while still staying loyal to your home church on Sunday mornings? Maybe you can get your extraverted brother to invite groups of people to the movies and bring you along?

Actually, I just ran into an old buddy of mine from my Borden days (we were on our Soldier Qualification course in Gagetown together), found out that he's posted here too. My life got a little brighter Wednesday...

Maybe you could take an advanced language course at a university that has 95% female enrollment?

Hmm. Never thought of that.

*heads off to check out Laval's website*

For now, I can only lift it up in prayer my man! But I will be thinking of you.

This thread started out as a convoluted experiment that I was using to illustrate a point in another (I wanted to see how far such a post could roll if left on its own), but this post actually made sit up and take notice. Thanks be goin' out to me main man, Jay. Whop, whop, man, ev'ry'tin' airy. Jus' like me uvah main mahn Bob Marley say, No woomahn, no cry. Merci, mon cher confrère.

-Dunh, dunh, duna dah...

[i]Now, if you must marry, take care she is old --
A troop-sergeant's widow's the nicest I'm told,
For beauty won't help if your rations is cold,
Nor love ain't enough for a soldier.
'Nough, 'nough, 'nough for a soldier . . .[/quote]

-Rudyard Kipling, The Young British Soldier