To help you establish godly standards, consider the following advice
given by a panel of young Christians between the ages of 20 and 30. Some
are married and some aren't. While the names are changed to preserve each
person's privacy, the comments are genuine.
Should you hold hands?
Bill, 28 and married to Sue, said he didn't have a rule about holding
hands before he was married but realized that "those first thrilling physical
touches when one is young can often open the door to premature intimacy
and big life mistakes."
Continuing, he remarked: "If I could do it all over again, I would refrain
from hand-holding until becoming engaged (and then make sure the engagement
was brief enough so as to minimize any potential problems). Individual
tolerances to holding hands or other touching may vary, so there's no
hard-and-fast rule. But I would have done better erring on the side of
strict conservatism in this area."
Kate, 28, who is married to Luke, wrote: "We didn't hold hands till almost
a year after we started dating. We started dating a year or more after
we had known each other as friends with the understanding that we were
potentially interested in marriage and wanted to spend time together to
find out.
"When it came time, Luke actually asked me if he could hold
my hand. Looking back, holding hands at that point was a good thing, even
though I questioned it at one point because it became a distraction for
me for a short time-either wanting him to hold my hand, or having
a difficult time reigning in my thoughts when he did. However, he explained
to me that he felt like it was important that there be a physical means
of communicating with each other and expressing the closeness that we
felt. I think that he was right.
