I’m 28M and he’s 53M. We’ve been talking but not dating for almost 8 weeks now. I’ve never dated anyone IRL my whole life at least intentionally because I was raised in a conservative baptist home. I came to my terms with God since the pandemic happened and it’s been a blessing and I’m now an affirming Christian. He’s baptist too and I liked him the more I knew him. He’s single and has two children almost my age and he loves them. Since we’re only talking, texting and facetiming every now and then and haven’t met yet, I don’t wanna rush into anything. But I’ve developed feelings for him, I don’t know if he feels the same way.

I know when you’re dating out there, you’re talking to multiple people but I’ve only been talking to him and might choose a different path of being celibate if this never worked out. I like to be honest to myself and I won’t date women because I just can’t do it, and I’d rather be single for the rest of my life.

We’re eventually gonna meet IRL for the first time in a few weeks when he is in town next time and since this is something I’ve never done it before, I’m afraid I might face rejection after we meet because I don’t know how he feels about me. I’m probably gonna give up dating if that ever happens.

Faith and having a personal relationship with Jesus is important to me. The Reformation Project has given me hope and has brought me closer to God. I think he loves God too and this pleased me very much.

I just need some support, how do you guys do it? At what point do you say you’re dating? How do you address each other to a third person if you happen to bump into someone at church or some coffee place? Is there anything that I should be careful about so I wouldn’t unknowingly hurt him considering there’s a generation gap?

NB: I’ve done online LDR for almost 4 months with someone[30] who is not a Christian and he slowly shut me down when he realized I’m serious about my faith and that I don’t curse a lot like he does. We never met though.