Soo...you've got girlfriend/boyfriend and things have been great and you are happy. You two have been together for some time now and things are starting to head towards marriage, but marriage seems like too much of a "next step" to take for you? Better yet, you WOULD LOVE to get married to your partner but you cannot at the moment because you are either still too young, you can't introduce him/her to your folks yet, financially you just aren't ready, etc etc
My excuse is that I am not financially ready, I have my mind made up though about where my girl and I are headed, oh and please bear in mind that I am just a 21 year old university student.
I am blessed by coming from a Catholic home whereby church was drilled into us from a young age.
I am even more blessed that my girlfriend also comes from a Christian, church-going family.
Now I must tell you, I am not the strongest of believers out there, but I do try.
I say this because sometime last year my family and I started having financial trouble, and although things kept looking like they would get better, they just wouldn't, like we are cursed or something. I then started losing faith in the Lord because I couldn't understand why we were being punished wheres we did what we were supposed to. So I often cried (as specially seeing my parents struggle) and complained allot, and where better to cry than your partner's shoulder.
On a random day, my girlfriend then came to me and say "come lets pray together".
I was somewhat confused. I mean I knew she was spiritual, but to share that part with me? Anyway, we then started reading scriptures and praying together and I would often be given homework (having to read scriptures and give report backs).
That was probably the best thing that could have happened to her and I. From those moments, we openly invited God into our relationship and things have never been the same since. Don't get me wrong, we are not close to perfect as we still argue allot, but the amount of pressure(if I can call it that) has been lifted off our shoulders. We feel as though we have now passed the turning-point in our relationship and there is simply no going back...and that my dear friend, is an awesome feeling.
What this means is that, no matter what happens or how much you fight and argue, as long as you both know that God is working through your relationship, you guys will not end up leaving each other, therefore giving you less to worry about in your relationship.
I hope I am making sense.
so yes, my simple advice to take your relationship to the next level is simply
"Pray together", I can almost guarantee you that you guys will be closer than before. Good luck!
