Dating Can Cause Discontentment with God's Gift of Singleness

The Seven Habits of Highly Defective Dating

Sometimes we see children who are more impressed with the gift-wrapping than the gift itself. I can't help but think that God views our infatuation with short-term dating relationships much as some children's love for gift wrapping. A string of uncommitted dating relationships is not the gift!. God gives us singleness - a season of our lives unmatched in its boundless opportunities for growth, learning and service - and we view it as a chance to get bogged down in finding and keeping boyfriends and girlfriends. But we don't find the real beauty of singleness in pursuing romance with as many different people as we want. We find the real beauty in using our freedom to serve God with abandon.
Recreational dating causes dissatisfaction because it encourages a wrong use of this freedom. God has placed a desire in most men and women for marriage. Although we don't sin when we look forward to marriage, we might be guilty of poor stewardship of our singleness when we allow a desire for something God obviously doesn't have for us yet to rob our ability to enjoy and appreciate what He has given us. Dating plays a role in fostering this dissatisfaction because it gives single people just enough intimacy to make them wish they had more. Instead of enjoying the unique qualities of singleness, dating causes more people to focus on what they don't have.