I have been dating my girlfriend since February. So about eight months now. That is a pretty good amount of time. In the LDS culture though a lot of people get married by then, especially if the guy is a returned missionary. We hear all the time the question that goes a little like this: “So…when are you two getting married? You’re engaged right?” Or something along those lines. Our response is usually, we don’t know yet. We want to make sure we know before we jump into one of the biggest decisions of our existence. I like to relate it to my mission.
Before my mission I decided to work for a little while to earn enough money to pay for as much of my mission as I could. A few months before I turned nineteen I started hearing at least ten times a Sunday, “So when are you going on your mission? You are going right?” Ever since I was about two years old I wanted to serve a mission, of course I was going. To be honest though I didn’t feel like it was the right time for me to go yet. Every Sunday the same thing until I was well into my nineteenth year. I was praying, going to church, reading my scriptures, everything I needed to be and waiting for God to tell me now was the time. My answer came in the form of a scripture, it literally said “Now is the time of your mission.” The spirit hit me so strong that I knew without a doubt it was time. I began working right then to go on a mission, and I feel like I went at the exact time I needed to. If I had the choice to change anything, I wouldn't have. I would have done it exactly the same. The same thing I did then with my mission, I am doing now with marriage.
I heard once that you can never please the people. They ask “When are you going on a mission?” Then you do that, “When are you getting married?” Then, “When are you having kids?” Then, “When are you going to have another kid.” And so on. It never ends. That is why in our lives we are required to have trust in God. We have to counsel with him and fear him more than man. He knows when we should go on a mission, get married, have kids, whatever it may be. He knows us better than anyone, including ourselves. People have different timelines, that doesn’t mean one is better than the other, just different. Who is to say that someone who met, started dating and got engaged in the span of a month is doing it wrong? Or someone who dates the same person for two years is doing it wrong? God has the final say. We cannot judge.
Something that I have learned recently is the danger of being too comfortable. God always gives us new challenges or test or assignments to keep us growing, learning, and uncomfortable. Being comfortable or content isn’t a good thing. We have to grow. Sometimes you can get stuck in the dating phase, not move forward. What I have learned is that while God has a timeline, we have to participate in learning what it is and striving to follow it. Sitting back and watching our life go by is not how God intended us to live. We must be agents, not objects to be acted upon. My advice to you, is to seek revelation, seek God’s plan for you, because he has one, and then live it. And don’t criticize others for having a different one. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.”
Isaiah 55:8
Going along with what Elder Randall K. Bennett from the seventy said in this past Priesthood session of General Conference, we need to take the necessary steps to come unto Christ. He talked about how we cannot wait, we cannot procrastinate. We must take this advice and apply it to us now. Though God’s timing for each of us is different, we must not procrastinate knowing what that timing is. Don’t wait, seek that revelation now, especially if it is the biggest decision of your existence.
Before my mission I decided to work for a little while to earn enough money to pay for as much of my mission as I could. A few months before I turned nineteen I started hearing at least ten times a Sunday, “So when are you going on your mission? You are going right?” Ever since I was about two years old I wanted to serve a mission, of course I was going. To be honest though I didn’t feel like it was the right time for me to go yet. Every Sunday the same thing until I was well into my nineteenth year. I was praying, going to church, reading my scriptures, everything I needed to be and waiting for God to tell me now was the time. My answer came in the form of a scripture, it literally said “Now is the time of your mission.” The spirit hit me so strong that I knew without a doubt it was time. I began working right then to go on a mission, and I feel like I went at the exact time I needed to. If I had the choice to change anything, I wouldn't have. I would have done it exactly the same. The same thing I did then with my mission, I am doing now with marriage.
I heard once that you can never please the people. They ask “When are you going on a mission?” Then you do that, “When are you getting married?” Then, “When are you having kids?” Then, “When are you going to have another kid.” And so on. It never ends. That is why in our lives we are required to have trust in God. We have to counsel with him and fear him more than man. He knows when we should go on a mission, get married, have kids, whatever it may be. He knows us better than anyone, including ourselves. People have different timelines, that doesn’t mean one is better than the other, just different. Who is to say that someone who met, started dating and got engaged in the span of a month is doing it wrong? Or someone who dates the same person for two years is doing it wrong? God has the final say. We cannot judge.
Something that I have learned recently is the danger of being too comfortable. God always gives us new challenges or test or assignments to keep us growing, learning, and uncomfortable. Being comfortable or content isn’t a good thing. We have to grow. Sometimes you can get stuck in the dating phase, not move forward. What I have learned is that while God has a timeline, we have to participate in learning what it is and striving to follow it. Sitting back and watching our life go by is not how God intended us to live. We must be agents, not objects to be acted upon. My advice to you, is to seek revelation, seek God’s plan for you, because he has one, and then live it. And don’t criticize others for having a different one. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.”
Isaiah 55:8
Going along with what Elder Randall K. Bennett from the seventy said in this past Priesthood session of General Conference, we need to take the necessary steps to come unto Christ. He talked about how we cannot wait, we cannot procrastinate. We must take this advice and apply it to us now. Though God’s timing for each of us is different, we must not procrastinate knowing what that timing is. Don’t wait, seek that revelation now, especially if it is the biggest decision of your existence.