The State of the Dates (Prognosis: Not Good)

I don't think I've ever written a "rant" blog before, and I don't think that this is one either. I am frustrated to a certain extent, however, and I need to voice this to all my readers, provided I have any. So here it goes: Taken as a general rule, Boyce guy/girl relationships seem to be amazingly skewed. This is unnervingly apparent this banquet season. This is the first time in 3 semesters that I have really "entered the fray," as it were, for banquet season, so maybe this happens everytime. Even so, that still doesn't make it right. Put simply:

"Why are all the wrong girls saying yes, and all the right girls saying no?" Some pointed questions, directed at both genders. I'm not targeting people: I'm targeting attitudes.

For the Ladies:

1. Are you waiting for the BBD (the Bigger Better Deal)? Is that why I have two friends who were turned down 5 times a piece?
2. Do you really believe in courtship? If so, how's that going to transition when you've found the ideal guy? Do you realize, that if you hang out with a guy quite a bit (not necessarily a bad thing), that you ARE in the accepted definition of the word, dating, him?
3. Do you expect us guys to read your minds? Is that why you often send no signals whatsover?
4. Do you realize that many of you are constantly being flirtatious?
5. Do you realize how dumb it is to hang out with one guy exclusively for a week, then move on to the next one? Do you have any qualms about that?
6. Do you know what to look for in a guy? There are amazing guys here who are going to make a huge impact for the kingdom that you totally ignore.
7. Have you really submitted your ways to the LORD? Have you bought into the lie that you have to be married before you leave here or married to be in ministry? Consider the example of Amanda Paramlee, an IMB tent-maker missionary to an Unreached People Group in Taiwan. She's in her mid twenties and unmarried. What if God's calling you to do the same?
8. Could you be honest about the fact that you don't have it all together, and in reality, you sruggle on the inside? that you have fears and doubts and problems and insecurities too? Could you maybe, just maybe, change your ice princess gown for the apron of a true unnoticed servant?
   

Don't think that my dearly loved brothers (and me) are going to get off easy.

For the Guys:

1. Why is it, that considering all the requirements/characteristics/common traits of ministers of the Gospel, that you've chosen being "the husband ofone wife" on which to focus?
   
2. Have you even heard of the concept of servanthood? Don't you realize that Christ cherishes, loves, and was tortured to death for his bride? Is that not submissive, passionate, fond, costly service? Why is it then that we still dwell on fulfilling our own needs?
3. If you really want to make a "statement" why don't you take the girls that no one thinks to ask to the banquet?
4. For that matter, why is it that you only ask the pretty or popular girls as "a friend" to the winter dinner?
5. Why don't you stand guard over you sisters instead of trying to steal their hearts and affections?
6. Why don't you affirm your sisters?
7. Why do you think that just because you're attracted to a girl, and you've "prayed about it" that God must have "predestined" that she fall madly madly in love with you?
8. Why are you so shallow? Why don't you include the attitude of the heart in your definition of how hot a girl is?

There. I said it and I stand by it. There are probably zero people out there who agree with every word that I wrote. I don't care. This is my take on "the state of the dates."

Knowing God through Love

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent His One and Only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 10 Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and His love is perfected in us.
13 This is how we know that we remain in Him and He in us: He has given to us from His Spirit. 14 And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God—God remains in him and he in God. 16 And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.
17 In this, love is perfected with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; for we are as He is in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears has not reached perfection in love. 19 We love because He first loved us.

Keeping God’s Commands

20 If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And we have this command from Him: the one who loves God must also love his brother.

1 John 4:7-21 (HCSB) [Coming soon to a Boyce Dorm Meeting near you]