episode 1.12 - Are you sure you want to get married?

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:

1. Fear and insecurity around not being ready - “I need to fix things about myself or my life before I get married."
2. Fear that you’ll turn out like your parents - “My parents didn’t have a great marriage, and I don’t want to repeat their mistakes."
3. Fear of uncertainty and change - “I don’t know if this will turn out well.” or “I don’t want to lose my freedom."
4. Fear of leaving your family/comfort zone - “I don’t want to move away, quit my job, leave my community, etc."

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