Teens and relationships go hand in hand. In this day and age, you really don’t get one without the other.

The problem is that a majority of teenagers don’t even “date” at all; rather, they jump straight into a relationship. The entire dating and courtship process is skipped, so they never fully get know the person they’re in a relationship with.

Not many teens really know the difference between dating and being in a committed relationship with someone. Dating is an engagement to go out socially with another person, often out of romantic interest. You date to get to know one another on a higher level than just friendship and to see if this person is really what you are looking for in a partner. Being in a committed relationship is giving yourself, as a whole, to another person in a mutual agreement of love, respect and faithfulness. I don’t believe teenagers are ready for that type of commitment yet.

As a teenager myself, I know that a lot of the times people begin relationships for the wrong reasons such as sex, jealousy, spite, insecurity, and out of sheer loneliness. Those reasons are not good enough to start a relationship. Relationships take both emotional and physical maturity, something almost all teenagers lack.

As fun as it may seem now, I don’t believe teenagers are ready to date or be in relationships; they need to grow and mature first. Before we can try to love someone else, we need to learn to love ourselves.