Keith Battle - Verified - Part 2

We are in a new series called Verified, and this series is so exciting! We have so much connected to it. We have merchandise you can check out; click the merchandise link to find out more about how you can get items for Verified. There’s so much going on during the week that you can connect with across four different platforms. The singles have more opportunities than I can even keep up with, but I hope as a single, you’re connecting, getting involved, and participating in those events. Really, what this series is about is making sure you understand that you are complete without a relationship. You’re complete whether you are booed up or not. You’re stamped, whether you’ve changed your last name because you married someone or whether someone just took on your last name because they married you or not. You’re still stamped, whether you had a hashtag on social media announcing your engagement or your future marriage. None of that makes you complete; you are complete all by yourself. You’re enough all by yourself. Marriage doesn’t complete you, and divorce doesn’t even complete you. You are altogether enough and verified all by yourself!

In fact, there are some benefits to being single. Think about the advantages: you don’t have to keep your cell phone charged up in case you don’t answer and someone thinks you’re cheating on them. You don’t have to worry about any of that. You can take trips; you can go wherever you want whenever you want. You can come home whenever you want and go back out whenever you want without needing to check in with anyone. You can do all that when you’re single. When you’re single, you don’t have to share anything with anyone. You don’t have to share your food; if you want to hide food in your house, you can do that too. You don’t have to hide anything—unless you have kids, because they don’t share; they just steal your stuff! These are some benefits of being single: if you’re single, you can pass gas and not have to leave the room. That’s a blessing right there! You only have to say «excuse me» when you pass gas. That’s another level, but you probably should say «excuse me» to the Lord, because He’s always there, and you know He heard it, even if it was silent. If it was silent, you still need to say «excuse me,» because you know when those silent ones happen and your diet isn’t right—He knows too! Yeah, I know you all do! That’s the truth, whether you can handle it or not.

Let’s talk about the benefits of being single. You can go and not have to tell anyone where you’re going. If someone asks where you’re at, you can simply say, «I’m in my skin,» and there’s nothing they can say about it. You don’t have to clean up after anyone, and you don’t have to deal with people complaining about your cooking skills or how tidy or messy you are. You don’t have to worry about any of that. Why? Because you’re single!

Now, let’s be crystal clear: there are some of you singles who are absolutely 100% content with being single and don’t want any relationship advice. You are content being single for the rest of your life, and that’s cool! But there are also many of you who are single and in the dating space. You enjoy being single, and some of you even want to get married. Let’s be clear: you’re not better than another single person because you want to get married, and you’re not better than another single person because you want to remain single. You’re both verified either way!

Today, I want to pick up where I left off in part one, discussing what kinds of questions you need to ask if you’re entering that dating relationship space. In part one, we talked about the «airplane talk» and those three essential questions: the history question is «Where are you from?» The destiny question is «Where are you headed?» and the activity question is «What brings you here?» That’s the airplane talk, and each of these is a cool question to get pertinent information about someone and get the conversation going so you can do your interview work.

Now, today we’re going to spend all of our time going deeper into due diligence, and I’ll provide you with some critical questions to ask to get the information you need about a person, ensuring you aren’t surprised down the road if you decide to make a long-term commitment to somebody. Before we dive into those new questions, I want to reflect on that history question one more time. I simply call it «Where are you from?» Look at someone nearby and ask, «Where are you from?» That’s real! If you’re in the chat room, respond with where you’re from!

You know what? «Where are you from?» is a profound question. Most people in relationships have not discovered this profound truth: much of the conflict and mystery in the relationship has to do with where someone is from. Adam is from the ground; Eve is from the rib. That’s totally significant!