In a conversation a friend casually mentioned that her children weren't allowed to date until they were 40. Now, this isn't the first time I've heard this type of comment, although usually the minimum age is a bit lower, somewhere around 35. On the one hand, I get where these folks are coming from. I get that they are attempting to save their children from unnecessary pain but really?
Lord willing, I would like grandchildren. I am assuming that at some point God and the Good Doctor are going to tell me that we are not to add anymore children to our clan. But I am doing my best to see that there isn't too much lag time between our last addition and the addition of the first grandchild. So, you can see, requiring my children to wait until 35 or 40 just would not work well with my efforts to have a smooth transition from youngest child to oldest grandchild.
I am not saying that I push my children to date at a young age. That would be just as counterproductive as me forcing them to wait to begin this process. However, I have been informed that my daughter has a suitor. I wasn't exactly ready for this but should have known it was coming. She has quite a beautiful personality that matches her God-given exterior very well. She sings, dances, and entertains quite well. She is also outgoing and friendly.
From my perspective, he comes from a good family, has been raised to love the Lord, is in church on a regular basis, loves God and loves my daughter. What more could a parent want? The fact that he and my daughter are both only 6 years old could be a bit of a problem, but he appears to be quite persistent so that's in his favor.
I don't know exactly when his infatuation began but he shared his devotion with HopeAnne one day this summer when we were visiting his house. On the way home she informed me that this young man from her Sunday School class had asked her to marry him. I asked her how she responded. "I told him no because I'm marrying someone else." Uh oh. I hope she let him down easy. Further investigation couldn't get her to disclose her intended other than that he has dark hair and he was, at the time, in preschool.
Since that time, I have discussed this with the little boy's mother. Apparently he has already shared his intentions with her and I found out that HopeAnne is actually his fourth choice, after first asking his mother, and then each of his two sisters, for their hand in marriage, only to be informed that it doesn't work that way.
One Sunday Jesse, who volunteers in their classroom, informed me that I needed to speak with Hope. He said it was really cute because Hope and her pursuer were holding hands in Sunday School but that soon after he saw HopeAnne hitting the young man. "Well," I asked, "why did you hit him?" "Mom," she stated, "he wouldn't leave me alone!" Well, that left me with a dilemma. I don't want her hitting people but on the other hand, if a boy won't take no for an answer, you do probably need to give him a more obvious answer.
I apologized to the little boy's mother for my daughter's behavior. She told me that it was definitely not a problem as my daughter had finally told her son that she would marry him.
"Oh, and do you know how this came to be?"
"Yes," she answered with a smile, "he told me that he just kept asking her to marry him until she finally said, 'Oh, all right!' and that's how he got his answer."
That's one smart, persistent, future son-in-law!
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