Dating Morms(Norms)

There are multiple things that the people who Im close to all know about me.

1.) I am most likely the pickiest person you know, yet I also probably eat more than anyone you know. Its rough and I have a love/hate relationship with food.
2.) I am very high energy and there is almost never a time when Im not up to do something
3.) I hate Mormon dating

Hold on just a second, hate isn't the right word... I disagree very strongly with many aspects of what "Mormon Culture" has defined as dating. Don't get me wrong here I love the doctrine of Family and Marriage. I have ZERO problems with the doctrine behind dating, even if at the time I wanted to date before I was 16. The problems I have is with how dating is approached in the community, especially from what I have seen here in Provo.

First of all lets start with how dating begins. Asking someone on a date is not a proposal, nor declaring your intent to propose down the line if you two seem to get along. Asking someone on a date means that you want to get to know them better, and that you can see yourself in a relationship with said person, but you want to get to know them better.

Second asking someone out should not be a huge deal or scary, but it also should be done with respect and thought. Texting is a huge no! thankfully most people agree on this but theres another side to it. Asking someone out should not be scary or some huge deal. Just in case you weren't sure, boy or girl, if you ask someone out they are very likely to say yes, and in the case that they say no, you can be glad you aren't wasting your time with someone who doesn't value your company.

Finally there seems to be this huge rift in the community on how long to date. There are people who propose on date 3, there are people who say they will never get engaged until they have dated for at least a year. The problem with this is that you are actively putting your own will above that of the Will of the Father. For example, me and Nala. We started dating April 7th. After the most amazing ten days of my life, we had a date picked for when we were going to be sealed. If either one of us would have set up an arbitrary amount of time we had to date before deciding to get married, we would be actively ignoring promptings to guide and direct our lives.

It all comes down to this. Date! that's it! Just let it happen. If you meet someone you are interested in, you can ask them out! If you fall in love, great! If you don't, theres always more people to get to know! If you try to force dating, or you try to hold it back, you are only limiting yourself from the wonderful possibilities that the lord is saving for you. Don't let anything limit your potential, especially yourself :)