This week was all about marriage and dating relationships. One of our discussions really hit me hard in a sense that I realized how many aspects there are to love. There are 4 kinds of love:

Agape: a not feeling based and intentional love for someone

Storge (store-gay): is the parent to child love 

Eros: is romantic/sexual/passionate love

Phillia: is a close, friendly, brotherly love

I realized that in a sense you need all four of these in your relationship with your spouse when you marry. You have to care for them as a human being, you have to want to help them in times of need, you need that physical attraction, and you need to be close friends where you communicate everything and have a deep trust. 

            Another thing is that dating has changed So much! Dating used to be that you wanted to get to know someone better, not be boyfriend/girlfriend. In today’s world, if you go on a date you are attracted to someone and are expecting a relationship. But that's not it at all. We should date for fun, date a variety of people, it’s a time for you to grow and learn yourself. Then courtship, yeah it sounds old school but it’s an important part in the road to marriage. "Courting" or exclusively dating is a "trial" or a time for you to see if there is a potential for marriage. Engagement comes next. During your engagement, it’s a time for you and your fiancé to prepare for the wedding and for your marriage. The two are often seen as the same but are in reality very different. You have a wedding where everyone celebrates, but your marriage is between you and your spouse and God. During to process you learn together, different from dating where you learn for yourself. Together you learn to work together as a couple, how to communicate, how to problem solve, and how to make decisions together. In todays world people go from dating to cohabitating to sometimes getting married and then most divorce. Cohabitation is not a good idea. People rationalize that you get to know someone better that way, but in reality, studies have shown that people who cohabitate are more likely to divorce or separate. Marriage is a huge decision, that shouldn't be made carelessly. But you should make the decision based on if you love, care, and want to not only based on attraction and if you like living with them.