 You shouldn't date at 16 years old. I'm sorry. Okay guys, from the teaser you may have picked up that I'm not a big fan of people dating at 16 years old. And let me explain a little bit to why I think that and some of my story behind that opinion. A while back, I guess maybe about 8 months now, my Instagram began to pick up for the channel and for the ministry and so I began to get a lot more questions about random things and things that I have never even spoke on, so like relationships. I'm not super like, I'm not a guy that's like, let's talk about relationships simply because I don't have a lot of experience in them. So a lot of my thinking and knowledge around that is unexperienced stuff. So that's kind of why I don't go into that area too much. I began to get a lot more questions about relationships and my friends found this very funny because they're just like, guys, if you're getting all these questions about relationships, you need to just become a relationship guru. And I'm like, that's not me. But at the same time, I was seeing all these questions from 13, 14, 15 year olds about their really tangled up relationship problems. And for me, I'm just like, I want to offer you advice. But at the same time, I just want to say, you should not be dating at 16 years old, at 15 years old, at 13 years old. When I think back to when I was 16 years old or 13 years old, the idea that I would be in a relationship with somebody like a relationship that would actually be functional and appropriate and beneficial and caring and serving like that seems hilarious to me simply because I was not ready and people are not ready at 13, 14, 15, 16 years old. I don't know if you're 16 or if you've met a 16 year old. If you're 16, this is going to be harder for you to understand because it's 16 years old. You're like, I have the world figured out. I am so smart. Thank you God for blessing me with so much wisdom. Like, there's a lot of lack of perception when you are that age. But as a 20 year old looking down on some of my friends that are 16 years old, I can see that why it is just simply wise not to date when you're 16 or younger. And some of you may disagree with me on this. Maybe you started dating at 16 years old and that was ended up being the person you married. And if so, that's awesome. But usually what happens is you start dating somebody at 16. It goes terribly. Something happens and you're emotionally scarred and that kind of baggage sticks around with you. And that's just unnecessary for us as people looking down on these 16 year olds and just saying, hey, look, we want to help you. Looking down in the sense of being older, not in like a judgmental sense. We want to help you and we just want to advise you don't date when you're 16. That just gives you a lot more heartache than you need to. Have good relationships with people of the opposite sex. That's great. Do that. Learn to, you know, how to behave around people that are not of your same gender. Learn how to serve people. Look how to be learn how to be caring towards those people. But don't get entangled in relationship that early in your life. And simply the reason being is you're not prepared for how to behave in that relationship. Emotionally, spiritually, physically, you're not ready for that. And so by jumping into that so early, you're opening yourself up to a lot of unnecessary heartache. I don't say this to be mean. You are so dumb. If you're 16, you couldn't even think about getting in a relationship anytime soon. You better just hunker down and do your own thing. Most of the time, in every situation that I've seen a 16-year-old dating somebody, it was a no-go. It was like, let's step back. Let's get back because things are so new to you. Your, you know, infatuation with the opposite sex. Maybe you hit puberty at like 13 and you're just now into this and your hormones are raging and you're just like, I want to be in a relationship. At 13 years old, I want it to be married. Okay. I wanted to be married at 13. But I had enough people around me that instilled in me that, hey, look, wait until you're 18 because then you'll be fully equipped to be able to be in a relationship, be able to at least partially equipped to be in a relationship. Begin to dip your toes in the water of what it looks like to be in a relationship. But if you're 14 and you're just like, oh, well, I like girls. I guess I should be in a relationship. That is not good. That is not good. And it's not very wise. So now you think, well, Isaac, look dude, you just said I couldn't be in a relationship and now my life will suck. Do I need to break up with my girlfriend? What is going to happen? I just wanted to be in a relationship. We're very happy. Well, look, if you're 14, 15, 16 years old, there's a lot of things you could be doing that aren't, don't have to do with relationships. Okay. Like I said, go out with friends and have fun and have good boundaries that are conducive with just good friendships, not relationships. Because oftentimes relationships can get in the way of a lot of good friendship building early on in your life. When you're 15, every person that's the opposite sex doesn't need to be in your mind a potential spouse. They can just be a friend. They can just be a friend and having good friends is awesome. And so if you're like 16 and you just want to be in a relationship, that's all you want. I just want to encourage you. Look, you can get in a relationship, but it won't fulfill you. It won't make all your dreams come true. Relationships are hard. And so I just want to say 16 year olds. I just want to say don't jump into relationships. 17 year olds too. I'm saying this to everybody, but I've seen a lot of 16 year olds jump into relationships. And at that age, I can definitely say, hey, let's take a step back. I haven't even mentioned talking about how that affects your spiritual life. Because when you're that young, you can't be that old in the faith. Maybe you came to Christ at a very early age, 7 or 8 or something like that. You're 16 now. And so you've been there a couple of years, but at the same time, it's important to continue to get yourself grounded in your faith and jumping into a relationship can really distract you from building that foundational work of your faith of following Jesus, right? Those are just some of the things and some of the reasons why I say, hey, let's be careful. Let's not jump into relationships right away. Let's not date at 16 years old. Let's not date at 15 years old. Let's continue to follow Christ, pursue him, pursue good, Godly relationships. And let's trust God that down the line when you're 18, 20, 22, that God's going to bring somebody or you're going to meet somebody that you'll really click with and you'll be able to go in a relationship with them. And that'll be great. But trust God that that'll happen. No reason to put, take it into your own hands and date at such an early age and it doesn't make sense. Okay, that's all I'm saying. Thanks for watching guys and I'll talk to you next time.