My husband and I started dating when we were 16 and married when we were 21. We were virgins when we married. We will celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary this summer.
Our daughter started dating her boyfriend when she was 14 and he was 17. They got married last year when she was 22 and he was 25.
So yes, I believe it’s possible to meet your spouse at a very young age.
I do agree with those who say that young marriage can work. However, I recommend not marrying for at least a few years so that you can “grow up together.” Growing up together means experiencing many things together, including the bad and unpleasant things.
You say you are mature. Maturity means that you have weathered many experiences, good, bad, and horrible, and come through these experiences stronger and more in love. I’m not talking about going to movies and attending church and having dinner with your families.
Here is a partial list of experiences that I recommend you do together BEFORE you get married:
- A funeral of a beloved family member (hers or yours), including the visitation and the lunch afterward, and possibly even helping to clean out the deceased relative’s home if this is possible.
- A sickness of one or both of you that involves barfing. Yes, you should be there holding up the head of your love, or she should hold up your head while you barf, and you should clean up afterwards. And no, the sickness should NOT be a hangover! A good stomach flu will do the job.
- A hospitalization of you or your love, hopefully for something minor like a hernia, a cyst, etc.
- A big family argument. Yes, you should be part of it, and you should be involved in the yelling, the crying, the eventual solution to the problem, and all the apologies and making up and hugging.
- A family vacation. Yes, go with the other family on vacation, or your love should go with your family. Separate rooms and beds, of course, for you and your love. But there’s nothing like a family vacation to really get to know your potential spouse! Woo, boy. A campout will do fine (separate tents, separate cots.)
- A family Christmas. BOTH of you should be part of BOTH of your familly’s Christmases.
- A big, long-lasting project in which you both work with babies and/or young children. VBS is a great way to do this, because it’s temporary. Other suggestions are camp counselling, family reunion games planner, religious education assistants to the teacher, etc. Just make sure that BOTH of you are working on this project.
- A heavy-duty outdoor chore, e.g., painting a house, planting an entire garden, baling hay, cleaning out a garage, etc. Yes, do it TOGETHER! Preferably one of your fathers should be standing over your heads criticizing everything you do!
- A politicial campaign. You should both be involved. It doesn’t have to be for a candidate. Perhaps you can join a political action group like Right to Life. Or get involved with a local issue in your town like the Campaign to Clean Up Grafitti.
- A sport. You should both be part of a physical activity on a regular basis. It can be different–perhaps you’re into running 5Ks, and she’s into ballet classes. Or it can be the same sport, if you are so blessed that you both enjoy the same activities (e.g., bike riding, running, bowling). But you should establish this habit early in your dating relationship.
- A religious retreat or conference. There are plenty of religious retreats that couples can attend even if they aren’t married. (Separate rooms!)
- A JOB. BOTH of you should hold down some kind of job, and you should be consulting with each other about how to spend and save your money. Your job should make enough demands of you that often, you must work out your plans for dating AROUND your job, and occasionally, you should have to miss an activity that you both really wanted to do because you have to work.
This is just a partial list. I hope you can see the purpose of all the things in my list. They prepare you for the kind of things that happen on a daily and weekly basis in marriage. If you can’t do these things together now and grow stronger in your love for each other, you will NOT be able to do them after you are married. Right now, you have your families to fall back upon if an experience is too upsetting and sad. When you are married, you will have only each other. Please take my advice, print out this thread, and start working your way through this list. You’ll be very glad you did.
I think that your plan to wait so long to marry is unrealistic unless you are separated (college, military, missionary service, etc.) My husband and I planned to wait, but all the pastors we knew told us not to wait, to just get married and be done with it. We’re glad we took their advice and got married BEFORE we got out of college. BUT…we had a very realistic and feasible plan to support ourselves. We didn’t just leap into marriage because a pastor told us to get married. We calculated the cost, and we had that big list of experiences above under our belts.
I do NOT recommend that you get married until you and your love are able to provide for yourselves and NOT depend on your parents for rent, food, etc. The Bible says that a man should leave his mother and father and cling to his wife. IF your or her parents are helping to support you, then you are not clinging to your wife, but to your parents as well–this will mean disaster for your marriage, since marriage is between TWO people, not four or six. If you are not able to support yourselves, then you are NOT ready to be married. Before you get married, you must come up with a good, solid, realistic plan for supporting yourselves.
Good luck to both of you.