Options (continued)

After deciding what options were NOT good for finding a date, I began thinking about what WOULD be a good option.  My thoughts turned to a new friend that I had recently met at the clinic I was working in. A few weeks prior, I went to a wedding shower for her and it was there that I discovered she met her husband-to-be on ChristianMingle.com.  I decided that maybe online dating would be a good option for me as well.

So, on that random Saturday, while working on a school project, I took a short break from my studies and typed the words ChristianMingle.com into my web browser.  There was the offer to join for free.  So I started typing.  There was a combination of questions regarding email address, user name, password, birthdate, Name, Zip Code.  The requested information gradually became more personal.   Height?  Surprisingly no question about weight, but had to choose your body type, such as 'Athletic' 'Slim' 'Average' 'A few extra pounds,' etc.  I began to see where people could easily mis-identify themselves.  Who of us doesn't want to believe we are skinnier or richer than we really are? Then the question of income range (yet another opportunity to deceive).  Singleness status? Such as 'Never Married' 'Divorced' 'Widowed' Occupation?  Do you have children?  Do they live at home? I kept typing or checking off boxes.  Why type of church did you grow up in?  What type of church do you attend now?  What type of ministry are you involved in?  How do you define yourself as a Christian?  This was interesting.  There were choices such as 'It defines who I am' to 'I am trying to decide.'  What?  I thought this was a place Christians came to mingle?  This did not make sense.  But I made my choice (It defines who I am) and moved on.  The question about how often you attend church was just as disturbing.  From 'Weekly' to 'Never'.  Hummm?

Next came the all important 'Who am I and what am I looking for' paragraph.  Wow.  How exactly does one tell potential dates who they are and what they are like in a few hundred characters?  That is at least as difficult if not more difficult than describing what you are looking for in a potential date.  [At this point I am wondering why I thought this would be a good break/distraction from my school project!]

The final part is submitting some photos of yourself.  Well, now.  I am usually the one behind the camera, so not too many (dare I say, not ANY that are flattering) pics of myself to post.  When you try to skip this part, you get a warning that people do not look at profiles if you don't have a picture posted.  I'm sure that is true.  But I certainly didn't want unflattering pictures of me posted.  So I began plotting how I was going to get some good current photos of myself, without letting anyone know that I had signed up for online dating.

So far, this online option was my secret.  A place to escape to so I could quietly find the Christian man of my dreams.  I really couldn't wait to surprise my family and friends with the story of the date-of-my-dreams that I had just taken the time to define!  What could there be about this new adventure that wouldn't be fun?