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Happy Wednesday friends!
We hope you’re all doing well as you star gearing up for the holiday season! December is our favorite time of year with all of the twinkling lights, festive music, and shopping trips. But what makes this season extra special is the fact that we get to spend so much time with our family and friends. So with that in mind, we wanted to take some time in today’s episode to talk about hospitality. Now, you might be wondering, what does hospitality have to do with your singleness or your dating life? And if this podcast is supposed to be “the Christian girl’s guide to modern dating”, why do we need to talk about hospitality? Those are great questions! We asked ourselves the exact same things as we were deciding on whether or not we should record an episode on this topic. We think hospitality can help you relationally in so many ways. First, it gets you in the habit of serving others and being welcoming to the people around you. Having a heart posture like that can set you up so well as you’re looking towards dating and marriage. If you begin to make hospitality a rhythm of your life, you will begin to view relationships, conversation, and community in a whole new way, a way that can only impact your relationship life for the better. And second, if you think on the practical side, the more hospitable you are, the more people you are going to interact with meet. And who knows if someone you are hospitable to ends up becoming more than just a friend? You never know! Either way, we thought this was an important topic to discuss, but we wanted to make it fun and easy for you guys to get started at practicing hospitality on your own. So this episode is full of practical tips and takeaways that are super simple to implement right away! We give you party ideas, hosting tips, game night suggestions, and so much more! You’re not going to want to miss this episode! We hope you enjoy this outside the box topic and are encouraged to begin welcoming people into your home so they can build relationships and foster community. Be sure to check back next week for our next episode we’re calling “Easier Said Than Done.” We are both going to be talking about different things we are figuring out and struggling with in regards to singleness and dating, because, trust us, we definitely DO NOT have it all figured out! We want you to know you’re not alone as you’re trying to figure how to navigate this season well, and our hope is that this episode reminds you of that. But until then, head on over to iTunes, Spotify, or Podbean and check out today’s episode “Hospitality And The Single Girl.” We’ll see you next week! -K&B P.S. Here are the rules to Spicy Uno I promised you 🙂 Credits: Hosts: Kristen Camp and Bethany White Music by: Adam Johnson Mixing and Editing by: Bethany White Logo Design by: Kristen Camp Content Advisors: Lindsay White and Melanie Hobson
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Hello friends!
We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with the people you love most (and maybe some people you only sorta love). We both enjoyed a week full of great food, exciting football games, and a lot of great Black Friday finds. Actually, let’s be real. I (Kristen) got a lot of great Black Friday finds. Bethany stayed home all day watching Hallmark Christmas movies. Either way, though, it was a good week! Another fun thing that happened last week is that we released our very CouchCast mini-episode! We were originally going to take last week off, but we came up with this fun idea to do a mini-episode on a topic that we had been asked to cover. So for CouchCast Episode 1, we asked the age old question, “Can Guys & Girls Be Just Friends?” This was such a fun conversation for us because it was structured a little differently than our other episodes. There were no notes. There was no prep. Just two girls trying to answer a question that a lot of people are trying to figure out. So, if you haven’t had the chance already, head on over to iTunes, Spotify, or Podbean and take a listen. You’ll be glad you did! Now let’s get into today’s episode. What we’re talking about today are the hesitations people can have around getting married. This was actually another topic that was brought to our attention by some friends of ours. Typically neither of us have a lot of hesitation around marriage itself. We get more worried about making sure we find the right guy or that we’re not with the wrong guy. But marriage has never really scared us. However, we know that’s not the case for everyone. We began to see more clearly after talking to our friends that there are some very common hesitations and worries that people have around getting married, so we wanted to address those things in today’s episode. There are four specific hesitations and fears that we are going to talk about. They are:
Maybe you struggle with one, or several, of these hesitations. Maybe you’ve met the right person, you’re dating the right person, or maybe you’re even engaged to the right person, but you just can’t seem to get over some of the fears you have around moving towards marriage. If that’s the case, then this episode is for you. We want to encourage you that while there are some healthy fears around relationships and dating, there are also fears that can hinder you, or even paralyze you, from moving forward. If we’re not careful, we can allow these fears to keep us from receiving God’s best for our lives. Our Heavenly Father created us not to have a spirit of fear or timidity. He gave us a spirit of strength and confidence because we have the Holy Spirit living in us! So with that in mind, our hope as you listen to this episode is that you feel encouraged to hand your fears over to God and trust Him with where you’re at. He has your best interest in mind, and He will guide you forward, even if what’s ahead seems scary. We hope this conversation is helpful for you, and we can’t wait to hear your feedback! If you’re enjoying our podcast, we’d love for you to leave a rating and review on iTunes! That way iTunes knows to recommend the podcast to other people just like you who are trying to navigate dating well. We really appreciate your support as we continue this journey to find “the middle” when it comes to dating, relationships, and singleness as Christians. Finally be sure to check back next week where we’re talking about hospitality and the single girl! See you then! -K&B Credits: Hosts: Kristen Camp and Bethany White Music by: Adam Johnson Mixing and Editing by: Bethany White Logo Design by: Kristen Camp Content Advisors: Lindsay White, Melanie Hobson, Matt Ziesmer, Kate Freeman, Chelsey Ward Hi friends!
Happy new episode day! I don’t know about you, but Wednesdays are quickly becoming my favorite day of the week. You guys have been so wonderful to us as you’ve tuned in every week, kept up with us on social media, and shown us your support for this podcast. We literally COULD NOT do this without you, so I hope you know how grateful we are for each and every one of our listeners! So before I get super duper sappy, let’s jump into today’s show notes! In this episode, we are talking about contentment, which I know is every single girl’s favorite word in the English language (insert eye roll here). But we wanted to talk about contentment because we’ve both realized recently how it easy it is to make it look like we are content where we are, when we’re really just ignoring our discontentment. In today’s society, where busyness is a badge of honor, it is so easy to mask a discontented spirit with the distractions of day to day life. The thought of being still and acknowledging our current reality sounds a lot less appealing when we can just push it to the side and do other things that actually sound fun. But I think we are really missing something if we aren’t okay with sitting in our current state. This is something I personally really struggled with when I was going through a season where several of my friends were getting engaged and married. I immersed myself in being a bridesmaid - helping in whatever way I could, attending showers and parties, going dress and decor shopping, all the things. I didn’t want to slow down long enough to acknowledge the fact that I was hurt and disappointed that my friends were all getting something I really wanted. I was discontent, but I didn’t want to face my discontentment. So as we go through this episode today, our hope is that you don’t make the same mistakes I did. Don’t get me wrong. I totally understand how difficult it can be to find contentment in a less than ideal season, but we have to remember that our contentment is to be found in Christ, not our circumstances. He is where we find our hope, our joy, and our peace. If we look for those things anywhere else, we will inevitably be disappointed. Trust us. We know. We’ve tried. Towards the end of the episode, we give you some practical action items that you can incorporate into your every day life. We talk about keeping a gratitude journal and how to remove discontentment triggers from your life, in the hope that you will find contentment and gratefulness in a season where you’re tempted to just stay distracted. We hope this conversation helps you find rest in your Heavenly Father, in who He created you to be, and in where He has you right now at this point in your life. And as always, we would love to hear from you if you have questions, need encouragement, or just want to say hi! All of our social media and our email address is listed below so you can get in touch with us easily. Happy listening friends! -K&B P.S. Really quick, once you listen to the episode, if you could head over to iTunes and leave us a rating and review, it would be a HUGE HELP to us! Those ratings and reviews are how iTunes knows to recommend the podcast to other people. So if the podcast has been helpful or encouraging to you, head on over and leave a review and we will be forever grateful! P.P.S. Last thing I promise. We are going to be taking next week off for Thanksgiving week. So we hope you enjoy your holiday week with the people you love most, and we will pick back up with Episode 1.12 on Wednesday, November 28th. Until then, Happy Thanksgiving!! Credits: Hosts: Kristen Camp and Bethany White Music by: Adam Johnson Mixing and Editing by: Bethany White Logo Design by: Kristen Camp Content Advisors: Lindsay White and Melanie Hobson Hi friends! Welcome back to the blog as we talk about our most recent episode of Looking For The Middle: The Christian Girl’s Guide To Modern Dating. Today we are continuing our conversation around a survey we sent out a few weeks back. We sent this anonymous survey out to several guys in an attempt to figure out what christian men really think about dating and relationships. We asked them what they look for in a girl they want to date. We asked them what might deter them from asking a girl out. We even asked them what their biggest holdup was when it came to making the first move. There were some tough, personal questions on this survey, but the guys who responded did an incredible job of being honest, helpful, and straightforward in their answers. We both feel like we’ve gained so much knowledge and perspective after analyzing and talking through these survey results, and we hope as you listen to this two-part episode that you will do the same. We believe this is a conversation worth having, and we think it’s important to try to understand our brothers in Christ as best we can so we can navigate singleness, dating, and relationships well. So if you haven’t already, go listen to part one of What Christian Men Really Think About Dating, because we set the stage, give some context around the survey, and talk about the first half of the results in that episode. Then once you’re finished with that episode, go ahead and listen to today’s episode (part two). Just like we did last week, we’ve included a PDF of the survey at the bottom of this page so you can reference it while you’re listening and so you can see all of the questions we asked. One more thing we would encourage you to do is to use some of the questions from our survey with your guy friends. Ask them how they would answer these questions in an attempt to better understand them and learn about dating and relationships from their perspective. We have both found this survey to be a great tool for starting conversations with our guys friends about these topics, and we have only benefited from these conversations. We hope you enjoy this episode and that you’ll check back next week as we move onto talking about chemistry in relationships and how important (or not so important) it is! Happy listening! -K&B P.S. We just want to take a second and thank all of the guys who took the time to fill out our survey. We realize most of you might not see this post, but for those of you who do, thank you. Thank you for your honesty. Thank you for your transparency. Thank you for your wisdom and maturity. And thank you for the posture you had as you answered these questions in an effort to help all of the girls who listen to this podcast. Y’all are awesome and we are so grateful for you! Email: lookingforthemiddle@gmail.com Facebook: @lftmpodcast Instagram: @lftm_podcast Twitter: @lftmpodcast Credits: Hosts: Kristen Camp and Bethany White Music by: Adam Johnson Mixing and Editing by: Bethany White Logo Design by: Kristen Camp Content Advisors: Lindsay White, Melanie Hobson, Gabe Hartwig, and Matt Ziesmer 
Hey friends! We have a question for you. Have you ever wanted to know how the male mind works, especially when it comes to dating and relationships? Have you ever thought about a guy you like or a guy you’re dating and asked yourself, “I wonder what he’s thinking?” If you answered yes to any of those questions, YOU ARE NOT ALONE! We have both asked ourselves these questions too many times to count. So we decided to go straight to the source to get some answers. We sent out a ten-question survey to a bunch of different guys asking them to talk to us about dating and relationships. We dug deep in an effort to get some clarity and understanding around what it’s like to date from a guy’s point of view. I (Kristen) am not gonna lie when I say I had no clue what to expect from the survey results, but boy was I encouraged! These guys didn’t hold back. They were so honest and transparent with their answers, and they opened our eyes to so many things that we didn’t realize before. I hope you’ll take the time to listen to today’s episode as we begin to dissect these results, because they were definitely worth talking through. Also, to give you some clarity as you’re following along, we have included a PDF of the survey below so you can see every single question we asked. One last thing to note is that we decided to break this content up into two episodes. There was just so much information to cover and we didn’t want to skim over anything. So be sure to stay tuned next week for part 2 of What Christian Men Really Think About Dating! We’ll talk to you then! -K&B Email: lookingforthemiddle@gmail.com Facebook: @lftmpodcast Instagram: @lftm_podcast Twitter: @lftmpodcast Credits: Hosts: Kristen Camp and Bethany White Music by: Adam Johnson Mixing and Editing by: Bethany White Logo Design by: Kristen Camp Content Advisors: Lindsay White, Melanie Hobson, Gabe Hartwig, and Matt Ziesmer
Hey friends!
It’s time for another episode! If you’ve ever made a “future husband list”, whether it was on paper, on your phone, or in your head, then this episode is for you! Bethany and I both made the first version of our lists when we were in high school, and boy have their been some edits and rewrites since then. We’ve learned a lot over the past few years about what’s really important, and what’s maybe not so important when it comes to looking for qualities in a husband. So we want to pass one what we’ve learned to all of our listeners, which includes you! We’ll talk about what was at the top of our very first list and whether or not those things have stayed at the top long term. We bring up things we didn’t even think to look for when we were in high school but are now realizing are basically necessities. We’ll discuss how much of our list covers things like height, interests, and physical appearance. And we’ll talk about how recently we’ve each rewritten our lists to be based on different passages of scripture. Bethany will take us through Ephesians 5, and I’ll talk about 1 Corinthians 13 (also known as the love chapter). Our hope for this episode is that you’ll begin to look at your own list and decide what your deal breakers are and what they aren’t. One of the best things I did in regards to my list a few years ago was organize it into two categories: non-negotiables and preferences, and I’ll explain what that looks like towards the end of the episode. So whether you feel like you’ve got your list nailed down or if you think it needs a major overhaul, bring that list with you for today’s episode and let’s work through this together! After you’re done listening, don’t forget to comment on our Instagram or Facebook and let us know what’s at the top of your list! We can’t wait to hear from you! Until then, -K&B Email: lookingforthemiddle@gmail.com Facebook: @lftmpodcast Instagram: @lftm_podcast Twitter: @lftmpodcast Credits: Hosts: Kristen Camp and Bethany White Music by: Adam Johnson Mixing and Editing by: Bethany White Logo Design by: Kristen Camp Content Advisors: Stephanie Buice, Lindsay White, and Melanie Hobson Hey friends!
Happy Wednesday and congratulations on making it halfway through the work week! That’s always something to celebrate right? We are really excited to (FINALLY) be releasing this episode. Ever since we recorded this one, we knew it would be a big hit, mainly because this is a question that we get asked a lot, whether it be from friends, listeners, or even ourselves. Waiting can be so difficult, especially when it seems like everyone around you isn’t having to wait as long as you are. So in Episode 1.6, we wanted to talk about how to wait well as a single woman. We’re going to break that down for you in two different ways. First, we talk about what it looks like when you’re in a season of waiting, and you have your eye on a particular guy. We answer questions like…
These are all such important questions when it comes to navigating dating. We have both experienced many trial and error situations when trying to figure out the answers, so we want to share them with you in hopes that you won’t make the same mistakes we did. And second, we talk about what it looks like to wait well while you’re single and you’re not interested in anyone specific. My mom has said for years, “Kristen, you can’t sit at home all day and wait for the UPS guy to deliver your husband to your front door. You actually have to go places and do things if you want to meet someone.” As much as I would try to prove her wrong, I figured out that she’s absolutely right! We have to be willing to put ourselves out there if we want to meet someone. But even beyond that, we can’t just spend this season of singleness in a waiting pattern, hoping for marriage to come along. I came to the realization not too long ago that I didn’t want to look back on this season of my life and regret waiting around and not doing anything because I was buying into the lie that life starts after marriage. Because that’s just NOT TRUE. There are so many opportunities and experiences we have available to us while we’re single, so why not take advantage of them? And that’s exactly what we want to address in this episode. We give you practical ideas of how you can spend your time and how you can enjoy this season to the fullest. We hope you enjoy this episode and that you finish it feeling encouraged to make the most of your singleness right now, whether you’re interested in someone or not. Plus, we would love to hear about all of the fun and exciting things you’re doing or interested in doing in this season of your life. So be sure to hit us up (is that still a cool phrase?) on Instagram or Facebook, or shoot us an email and let us know what you’re doing to make sure this season is memorable and meaningful! Happy listening! -K&B P.S. I mentioned a blog post I recently wrote that kind of goes along with this episode. You can read that blog post here! Email: lookingforthemiddle@gmail.com Facebook: @lftmpodcast Instagram: @lftm_podcast Twitter: @lftmpodcast Credits: Hosts: Kristen Camp and Bethany White Music by: Adam Johnson Mixing and Editing by: Bethany White Logo Design by: Kristen Camp Content Advisors: Stephanie Buice, Lindsay White, and Melanie Hobson Hey friends!
I can’t believe a week has already passed since our last episode! I feel like time is flying by right now. Anyone else feel that way? I was talking to my mom yesterday and she told me Thanksgiving is seven weeks from tomorrow and it blew my mind! But even though time seems to be speeding by, I’m kind of okay with it because that means you guys get to hear our next episode! Today we are continuing the conversation around Men You Should Want To Date. In this episode, we close out our list of six guys by talking about the final four. I won’t give away too much, but I will tell you which men we talk about:
As we break each of these guys down, we talk about how a guy’s selflessness weaves into not only your relationship now, but also your relationship and your family down the road. We talk about the importance of him having mentors and mentoring others. We discuss decision making and how to tell if you’re dating a “yes man.” And then we wrap things up with a conversation about communication, because we all know how important that is right? This was a great conversation for us to have and we hope it’s helpful for you whether you have a certain guy in mind that you’re interested in, or if you’re still looking around. We can both say with full confidence and humility that we have not always dated guys who exemplify these characteristics. We’ve had to go through some difficult circumstances and awkward conversations to figure these things out. So our goal is to talk through everything with you so you don’t make the same mistakes we did. We want you to ENJOY dating and we want you to date quality men who loved the Lord and who are striving to grow and mature every single day. So with that, we hope you enjoy our conversation as finish up our list of Six Men You Should Want To Date. -K&B P.S. If you think there are more men to be added to this list, let us know by either sending us an email or reaching out on social media. We’d love to hear from you! Email: lookingforthemiddle@gmail.com Facebook: @lftmpodcast Instagram: @lftm_podcast Twitter: @lftmpodcast Credits: Hosts: Kristen Camp and Bethany White Music by: Adam Johnson Mixing and Editing by: Bethany White Logo Design by: Kristen Camp Content Advisors: Stephanie Buice, Lindsay White, and Melanie Hobson Hi friends!
Happy Wednesday - or happy podcast posting day as we like to call it around here. If you’re a repeat listener, welcome back! But if you’re new around here, we are your hosts, Kristen and Bethany, and we are just two single girls trying to figure out how to date well as Christian women. And in order to start figuring that out, we’ve launched the podcast to start conversations around dating, relationships, singleness, and lots of other fun things! As I’m sure you noticed, the title of today’s episode is Six Men You Should Want To Date (Part 1). Over this episode and next, we are going to breaking down six different types of men that we would consider datable men. But before we jump into that list, we wanted to start off by making a clear distinction between boys and men. I’m sure most of us have dated a boy or two in the past when we would have rather dated a man. Both of us sure have! And it’s because of those experiences that we wanted to talk about why dating a man rather than a boy is so important. Our hope for you is that you will date (and hopefully marry) a man who loves the Lord, who doesn’t play games, who is others-focused, and who takes initiative. The last thing we want is for the opposite to be true where you date a boy who is immature, self-focused, passive, and lazy. We want today’s conversation to be helpful for you, giving you characteristics and qualities to look for as you’re considering dating someone now or in the future. Once we break down a few differences between boys and men, we jump right into the list of six men you should want to date. Even though we only cover two of the six men today, the two types of men we bring up are probably my favorite. We talk about dating a man who is confident and dating a man who leads. Before we recorded this episode, I asked a bunch of my friends to name three qualities they’re looking for in a guy. Every person I asked - whether they were young, old, single, dating, engaged, married - listed confidence as one of their three qualities. Clearly this is a very important quality to a lot of women (including the two of us), so we made sure we talked through it. We even break down how to tell the difference between a guy who is confident and a guy who is arrogant, because we know that can be tricky sometimes. Finally, we talk about the man who leads. And by that we mean a man who leads himself, others, and you. Plus we give some advice on how leadership from a man looks different in the context of dating and the context of marriage. So, there’s definitely lots to talk about and think through! So head on over to the Listen tab and check out Episode 1.4 - Six Men You Should Want To Date (Part 1) and then be sure to check back in next week for part 2! Once you get done listening to the episode, we’d love to hear from you! So head on over to our social media and let us know what other differences you think there are between boys and men. Or if you have any questions, feel free to shoot us an email. Email: lookingforthemiddle@gmail.com Facebook: @lftmpodcast Instagram: @lftm_podcast Twitter: @lftmpodcast That’s all for now! Thanks again for stopping by and we hope you enjoy this week’s episode! -K&B Credits: Hosts: Kristen Camp and Bethany White Music by: Adam Johnson Mixing and Editing by: Bethany White Logo Design by: Kristen Camp Content Advisors: Stephanie Buice, Lindsay White, and Melanie Hobson |
welcome to looking for the middleIf you're tired of Tinder but you don't want to kiss dating goodbye, you've come to the right place! |
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