Dating Panel

Last Thursday night we had four people come to TreeHouse to have a dating panel.  Many of our kids are facing the hard struggle of dating relationships and often making the poor choice to jump in bed with the guy or girl they like.  This has caused multiple girls in our programs to have abortions which in turn has caused deep sorrow and heartache.  We had one of our girls give birth about four months ago and right now we have two girls that we know of that are pregnant.  

Along with these heart breaking realities something like 75% of the families involved at Plymouth TreeHouse are either divorced or are single parents.  Many of those families have kids from multiple fathers.  On Thursday we asked everyone that has experienced a broken family to raise their hand and almost the whole room had their hand raised.  It made my heart sink!

Our goal with the dating panel was to let them know that they are worthy of a meaningful relationship based on more than physical intimacy.  We wanted them to know what is appropriate when dating and how to set their standards high.  We told them that they could be the first person in their family to break the cycle.  The most important thing we told them was that if they don't put God first they are walking down a dangerous road that will most likely lead to a place of hurt and destruction.

Pray that the messages that were sent out were received and that maybe one or two kids go the message to not settle and to realize they were created as precious children, worthy to be loved.