Sex is one of the big things I've been struggling with while dating. I know it's different everywhere but where I live the culture is very much that sex would be expected on date 1, 2 or 3. The idea that you would hold off till you had some sort of official relationship is outlandish.

I became Christian about 2 years ago. I don't believe in waiting till marriage but my faith has made me reflect on some of my past sexual experience, and, while I've never been abused or assaulted I have had bad experiences and been taken advantage of. All of this combined has led me to not really be interested in having sex with someone I don't trust, where there is no commitment (I mean like BF/GF not engagement or anything). This has made dating impossible.

I want to have sex but not right away. I also don't want to bring all of *this* up on a first or second date because some of it is very personal. I feel like if I felt comfortable enough to talk about all of this stuff with a guy I'd probably be comfortble enough to have sex. When I try to bring it up guys usually want a time scale - how many dates till we can have sex? That's not how it works. Or they think I'm completely "broken" in that department which is not the case either - I have a normal sex drive. Can anyone else relate? How do you navigate this?