Courtship Part 1

One of the questions that is asked most frequently of me about this blog is my relationship status. My usual reply is that the focus of this blog is not me personally, but rather the struggles, trials, and victories of being a young Christian woman moving away from the feminist mindset. However, one of the ways I write is through personal experience so today I am going to address the subject of relationship status.

I am single.

The response to this is often, do you date? No, I do not date in the traditional sense. There are scars from my past that have prevented me from being comfortable doing the traditional “dating” thing. Which in the long run, is probably for the better anyways but that is a post for another day.

Today I want to talk about courtship.

Courtship by Henry Mosler

Courtship is one of those words that incite a really strong response in some people. I will be posting an article in the near future about the differences between courtship and dating. For now, let’s just focus on courtship. Courtship has different definitions and there are different ways of going about a “traditional courtship”.  In most instances, a young man would become interested in a young woman and approach her father. At this point, the father would get to know the young man, mentor him, and learn about his beliefs. If the father saw no obvious issues, or problems the young man would be given permission to court the young woman, if she agreed. This courtship would take place in the presence of family or chaperone. The parents would watch the relationship develop and would step in if there was an issue or if the young pair was headed in the wrong directions.  After an appropriate amount of time the young man would approach the young woman’s father and ask for her hand in marriage. If the father granted his permission then the young man would propose to the young woman. This is in the ideal situation.

My story wasn’t exactly ideal. 

This is part one of Courtship. To read part two click here.