A date is someone you are considering for courtship or marriage. The right time for a dating relationship to develop into a courtship relationship is when you have learned about each other enough to feel you know each other well. During this period you must have established the following foundational elements for a joyful relationship:
• You have become friends with one another;
• You now trust him or her totally and to the point of refusing to accept the efforts of outsiders to tear you people apart with a lie;
• Both of you have faith in God who is the author of the marriage institution;
• You have dated virtuously without premarital sexual intercourse;
• You have developed mutual respect for one another – demands for premarital sex is a sign of lack of respect;
• Communication – you have developed easiness in discussing and chatting meaningfully without fits and bursts common in relationships between the sexes;
• You feel and also see that both of you are likely marriage candidates.
Friendship is stronger than love in sustaining a relationship. It is better to be trusted than to be loved. Marriage is an act of faith. That faith must be placed in God our Heavenly Father who is the author of the institution. That way, you can learn and together follow the laws, ordinances and covenants that God himself established for the marriage institution.
Your dating period should be a time to learn self control. You need self control not get involved in premarital sexual intercourse. This skill you can only learn during dating would help you to be considerate of one another during marriage where you would soon find out that sexual intercourse is only about five percent of the whole business.
Mutual respect is one critical make or mar element for marriage and the related relationships of dating and courtship. It needs to be developed at the stage of dating before that relationship should be allowed to develop any further. If mutual respect is not found in a relationship during dating, it is advised that the relationship go no further.
Communication is perhaps the most important thing a dating couple should learn to do together. It is not always easy for the male to hold a meaningful discussion with a female. When not properly managed, the time spent together would be used to feel and imagine the sexual aspects of the relationship and if not careful daters would indulge in premarital sex which scuttles the relationship. Boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen should learn to talk while with one another. When you establish that both of you can hold meaningful discussion for at least one hour or more seamlessly, then you know that the relationship could advance to the next level.
In the course of your dating relationship and as you pay careful attention to the itemized elements of the foundation for joyful relationships, you may get the feeling that both of you are made for each other.
While dating, if you notice that you have the above situations settled in your heart, then it is time to move from dating to courtship.
One more point is that courtship should not be declared unless both of you are ready for marriage within the next six months or not far away from six months.
Good luck.