A little personal history…
Originally posted 10/10/2004 on bibleforums.org:
I feel like such a loser…
I just had another relationship end because of the apparent lack of spiritual depth and passion in my life.
I met K in December 2000 when we were on a missions trip together. She was a senior in high school and I had just graduated college that spring. I didn’t really see her as a potential mate due to the age difference, but the more I observed her, the more I saw her maturity, and the more attracted to her I became. When the missions trip was over, I began emailing her, and we would talk at church. In March, I asked her dad if I could ask her out, and he said okay, so we started dating casually. She had never dated anyone before, and wasn’t really sure how to handle herself, so she kind of kept me at arms length, and even though we went out every week, we were technically “just friends.” In the fall, she went off to college, and we didn’t pursue our relationship further.
Several months later, I met T. She was attractive, and had a lot of good qualities that I respected. When she showed an interest in me, I asked her out and we started dating. She was a single mom, so we knew going into it that we weren’t just going to date casually. We were both in a position where marriage was a possibility (unlike K, since she was younger and just starting college), so our purpose was in evaluating each other as potential mates. After about six months, she concluded that I was not growing spiritually and put my own interests above hers.