Searching for perfect mate can be one of life’s greatest challenges.

After all, forever is a long time. You want to make right decision.

Dating itself can be really trying. It can be hard to find right people. What if they don’t share same values and beliefs that you do? How do you handle that and when?

Wouldn’t it be easier to know ahead of time that they are Christian, just like you?

Wouldn’t it be easier to know their respect for God and other people, values and beliefs, mirrors your own?

I know my own dating experiences were trying at best. My stomach used to churn before hand. I’d be so excited to meet new people, only to cringe as that feeling was replaced with absolute, crushing hopelessness as person demonstrated a trait I knew I just wouldn’t be able to tolerate.

If they said something snide about children and my being a parent, I knew it was over. If they weren’t pet people, it was going nowhere.

If they were vulgar, ignorant, not funny or if God didn’t have a place in their life like mine, what could we possibly have in common?

A few incidents come to my mind. The dental hygienist who chain-smoked. The girl who didn’t shave her legs, her armpits and didn’t wear deodorant (it took a few dates to begin to figure this one out).

I remember one Friday night where I thought I had met someone with real potential. She was highly educated, respectful and thoughtful. Several dates later, she showed up at my house with an open bottle of wine, already drunk. And then she stormed off when I mentioned concern that she had been drinking and driving.

Let me ask you, are you living from paycheck to paycheck? Do you have unpaid bills lying around? Do you have bald tires on your car? These things ought not to be. Determine, right now, that you will not settle for this any longer! Insist that you will not live like a dog, settling for crumbs that fall from table. Pull up your chair to table and feast with king.