Eric, thanks for sitting down. I want to ask you a question I get asked a fair amount from young men and even older men at times in regards to how I know if I'm ready to get married.

You know, I think in some regards, people push off

marriage even though they're ready by saying, I still need to work out these things in my life.

And other people jump too quickly into dating that have some significant sin, or maybe

there's not a future of marriage in the near term. And so maybe just if a guy was looking to date your daughter, what are some of the things

that you would say must be in place?

And what are the some of the questions that you'd be asking?

Well, as a father of two daughters, I've thought a lot about this question.

And obviously, I want to be a good dad and have a protectiveness for them and it's

interesting how often you'll see these somewhat comedic portrayals of a dad cleaning his shotgun

when the boy comes to pick his daughter up or rules for dating my daughter or applications

where it's filled with threats,

right? Like if you mess with my daughter. And I really do appreciate that fatherly protective instinct.

But I think raising daughters needs to start with wanting them to be so wise that when they get

to the dating age, you're not going to need that

kind of protective instinct because they'll be making wise decisions. And some guy who isn't

mature enough to be the kind of man they need him to be, they won't be interested in them.

Hopefully your daughters will be so godly that you won't need this dad cleaning a shotgun

on the front porch. But when it comes to the guy, I think it's all about character. I love,

Ian Bound said, who you are before God on your knees is who you are. And you may have areas of

immaturity. You may have areas where you have a lot of growth that's needed,

but if the trajectory of your life is toward Christ and growing in the fruit of the spirit

...