In my experience, any relationship will change you. If you spend much time with the other person (opposite gender or not), you will tend to grow together and become more similar. If two people who once spent a lot of time together stop doing so, they will grow apart.
I noticed it quite noticeably with my last relationship. When we first met, we were very different people, and as we became friends, those differences started disappearing. Without intending to, our friendship had closed that gap in a few months; dating would have been impossible (and wasn't really desired) when we first met. When we broke up, for a few months afterwards we were still pretty similar. We kind of lost contact with each other for a while, and when we got back in contact with each other, she (we) were definitely different. If we had stayed together, I dare say we would have continued to grow together. I would be that getting married would certainly accelerate that growth.
Marriage is an intertwining of two people. Surely you can't intertwine two things without changing at least one of them.
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Lightnin', true, we must change once we meet someone we like, a lot. Pun intended
But, in that change, we should not change the core essence of who we are/who God made us to be, a.k.a. , our beliefs and values.
People that compromise in those 2 aforementioned areas risk their relationship with God unquickening. To extrapolate, we CHOOSE to then serve a different master, the evil one with an 'S' in his lowly name. Satan!
We deny our true self's learned way by God and we will risk denying Him.
And, no, this 'denying' is not saying we lose our salvation, no, no, no, it would take a lot more for THAT to happen...
Losing your salvation (choosing to walk away from God for good in your life) would take unbelief in Him, valueing things of the world over following Him, as I believe, and, also an 'unsealing' ASK of the Holy Spirit from your life. 'Course, the Lord show great mercy to those 'unsealing' themselves and willl be AFTER them convictingly all the rest of that person's life. Only blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is unforgiveable, and, that, too, can be forgiven by that blaspheming person asking for forgiveness for his 'moment' of cursing God. God is with infinite mercy and grace , for those that come to Him, after falling away like The prodigal son) or, hmmm, who really turned their back COMPLETELY on God, and, was taken back ('Matthew West song is now playing in background, 'I'll take you back.' ) , hmm, nope, green brains, sorry to say, Christ peeps, thinking of no one . With all due respect, I blame this on my green brains
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I am not sure where I was going with all that, but one can see, I think, how important my belief system is to me, and my faith in my God, and, doing my best to die to fleshly temptations and glom to His Spirit leading me. My belief is, that though it can be hard to believe in a Triune God I believe that God 'manifested' Himself in flesh to come to Earth and show us how we could personally understand Jesus for relationship in our life, and, upon our willing receivance of the Holy Spirit we are processingly given manifestation gifts by the Holy Spirit whom we welcomed into our life. Great gifts, all given to, and, yes, a residual of getting gifts will be blessings to us but our mindset is to be to use those gifts to bring others to Christ, expand ourselves to serve Him, and, ultimately, bring glory to God, not worrisome over being it great or smalll needing. It is for His needing is all we are to understand, we are just to follow Him.
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I will stop there but to CHANGE my values, which stem from my belief in The Vine, would destroy me. I would be compromising on something of which, talking of how God''s Spirit's taught me to believe, can have NO compromise. Is a girl your attracted to and loves video games and watching sports WORTH risking your falling away from God. Risk of leaving Him for him ! And, I am not talking just about the guy as 'him,', I am talking about 'him' as Satan !
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So, moral of the story is this, and, no, I am not speaking about not being able to switch denominations if you really, really, like someone, and, the Lord leads you to do so. Follow Him with yoyr life His, because YOU are His
But, definitely , I am talking about your like for a girl/guy should NEVER include compromise (yes, the 'change' word is in that 'c' word) that takes you away from your core beliefs inside you, because the value of those beliefs could disappear, or, at the very least, lessen so much that you change for the worse even though you do it to TRY to change for the better , pleasing the girl/guy liked.
And, could we change our way of believing? Why schertainly! The Lord leads, as, ultimately, as I believe-- and hammer to all-- 'that' 3-word statement. Sure, just recognize this in CHANGING YOUR BELIEVING:
¥ou can go your own way, go your own way ( hey, is there an echo in here ;D ) but IF you are His, that way, ultimately, will be redirected (Proverbs 16:9). And, The Way (God) may let you go quite a ways down your path before those steps taken are forced into back-steps, often with much bumping into things, with your body parts (sometimes all of them) painfully aware of the error of your way. 'Course, your flesh, if NOT straying FOR GOOD to that wide path will be comforted by the Spirit, who will assuage that harrowing, chosen experience of yours, with His Love, getting you completely back on the (narrow) way.
