What is too much?

As I prepare for the October 2010 release of my third novel, Right Package, Wrong Baggage, many questions about relationships come to mind. I have been married for over 20 years. The rules of dating in the twenty-first century are mind boggling to me. General simple questions I would have asked twenty years ago, are now more complex and often have three part answers. For example: “Where do you work?” is now ”Do you have a job in which you receive a regular paycheck with federal and state taxes withheld, and recieve a W-2 for?”

I think it’s a safe assumption in this day and age that the majority of individuals, Christians included, are dating and entering into relationships with benefits once reserved for marriage. As a result many of us carry baggage such as emotional scars, children out of wedlock, health problems and so on.

While none of us are perfect and all of us have done things we are not proud of. I’m talking about things that we won’t tell nobody, but God and then on a limited basis. Taking our own imperfections into consideration, I pose the questions:

In your opinion, what baggage would cause you to end a relationship?
When looking for a mate, how much weight should be placed on an individual’s past?