One of the first things when the interview process for The World Race is a No Dating Policy. Yeah that means No romantic relationships! Now this can be hard because we are between 21-35 years of age and most of us are single on The World Race. There are the married exceptions #teamdannelley Jay and Jen from my awesome M-squad was the only married couple on our squad! Lucky I would say for the married couples they can hug and do all of the married stuff with each other!
For most single people on The World Race the romantic relationships have to be surrendered to God for 11 months. When I first heard about this I knew this wasn’t going to be easy but I said if this is what God wants I will do it. There were times giving this up was easy but there were times this was hard because God has given me the desire to be married someday and I will be according to The Lord unless He changes His mind for me.
When I came into the Race God had to change how I viewed women in my life. One of the things He had to change in me was to not depend on a woman’s affirmation to make me happy. I had to put Christ as my #1 love before I can love a woman. I even had to ask for forgiveness to a couple of women on my squad for using them for their affirmation of me. They forgave me and said I’m not the old Blake anymore and we are still good friends! There is hope to change with a willing attitude and to depend on Jesus for your love! Another thing I had to change is how I viewed women leaders in my life. I thought men were the better leaders overall and women were too emotional in the past. Sometimes I wouldn’t treat a woman leader at work the same as I would a male leader in my life. God did something to me on The World Race. Out of 11 guys I am the only guy who had a female leader on all my teams. Carrie my last team leader said to me about this it’s because you love on the women on our squad so well. While that is true, honestly The Lord had to humble me so I could honor female leadership in my life. Through Christ I have accepted female leaders and now even supported them and willing to help them out with anything. That’s all because of God.
In 1 Timothy 5 the Bible says “treat younger women as sisters.” On the World Race that’s how you have to treat the women as a single man of God or the woman treat all the guys as brothers. This can be hard because we want to get married because its a God given desire and this desire is awesome! When the desire is out of control this can distract us from what The Lord wants us to do for His glory. To keep this in check first take this desire to The Lord and surrender for the season He wants you in on The World Race or the non-dating season. This is not easy at times for me I had to do trust The Lord big time in this area. One thing I did was whenever someone talked about dating or something like this I said out loud 7 months. I was famous for saying a numbered day comment to anyone including myself for how long until we can date again. This encouraged me to keep on going day by day. Another thing I did on the Race in the relationship area was have a couple of guys keep me accountable in this area. My squad has some awesome and mighty women of God who are going to be great wives someday!
There were a couple of times where I had to say to the 2 guys I’m struggling with my emotions towards women keep me accountable. This helped me to stay focused on God’s work and not give into my flesh. This was hard but God got me through this part! Another thing I did was viewed them as sisters. The women want someone who will lead them in a Christ like way to become like him they don’t want passive men. The right Christian woman wants a man who loves Christ more than her and lead her in a Christ like way. They want to be view as daughters of Christ not as a piece of meat. They don’t want someone who looks at them naked in their mind the woman wants the guy to see their face and know they are beautiful by God’s standards. The right guy doesn’t need to see anymore than the woman’s face to think she’s beautiful!
There were sometimes in living in close community where guys and girls have what AIM calls one on ones or I like to call those times hanging out. On the Race for the first time ever there were good boundaries in place when I was with a woman and me only. I made sure when I was hanging out with a woman on the squad I was in a public area where they can see me talking to her so there would be no temptations to come up if I was alone with the woman. If they were in a room with me the door was always open because I wanted to protect our hearts and emotions. Have boundaries and protect yourself before you wreck yourself! Seriously!
I didn’t do everything perfectly on the Race with the women. There were times I was impatient with their shopping trips early on in the Race. Occasionally I would say the wrong thing or do the wrong thing to the ladies hey it happens I’m a guy and 40 sisters were thrown on me all at once. I was always teachable and quick to ask for forgiveness, accept the advice and move on. I give myself a B- overall with how I treated the women of M-squad from training camp to the end of the Race. Mostly lower marks at the beginning and the last 3 months I give myself an A- so I am growing in this area of my life! I just wanted to give future World Racers some advice on some hot topics since I am officially all grown up and alumni now! Thanks and God Bless!
