YOUNG PEOPLE ASK/Am I Ready to Date?

* What is dating?

* What is the purpose of dating?

* Am I old enough to date?

* Why wait to date? 

What is dating?

* You regularly go out with a certain member of the opposite sex. Are you dating? 

* You and a member of the opposite sex are attracted to each other. Several times a day, you send text messages or talk to this person on the phone. Are you dating?

* Every time you get together with your friends, you pair off with the same person of the opposite sex. Are you dating?

You most likely had no problem answering the first question. But you may paused before responding to the second and the third. What exactly is dating?

Really, dating is any social activity in which your romantic interest is focused on one particular person and that person's interest is focused on you. 

So the answer to all three questions is yes. Whether on the phone or fact-to-face,in the open or in secret, if you and a friend of the opposite sex have a special romantic understanding and communicate regularly, it's dating. 

Next time: YOUNG PEOPLE ASK/Am I Ready to Date? -What is the purpose of dating?

From the jw.org publications