14 Jun Singlehood

I so dislike the term “singleness.” When I hear it, it’s made to sound like an illness or disease- something you want to get away from or healed of; something you only tolerate until you “break out” and become married. I think “singlehood” is a more appropriate and purposeful title for this season of life.⠀
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Y’all know I’m married, but when I entered marriage I didn’t leave behind my singleness for marriedness. In fact, I did not feel in the least that I had been delivered of *singleness*. Quite the contrary! I realized all the more the inestimable value of the precious position in life that I’d been granted for 43 years.⠀
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I regret deeply that for many of those years, especially the older I got, I desperately wished and prayed and hoped that my position would change. Marriage was my focus. It was Jesus + marriage = my happiness and satisfaction. Thus, I was always wanting to be someplace other than where I was; someplace other than where God had assigned me. In the process, I wished so much of my life away; so much of what God had purposed and planned for me in those years as a single person that I could not recoup once I was married.⠀
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The Apostle Paul considers the single person to be in a place of *more*; a blessed and strategic position where one has a greater capacity for more wholehearted devotion to God (see 1 Corinthians 7). And after all, isn’t that really the goal… to love God wholeheartedly?⠀
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Marriage is not the end game.⠀
*Christ is.*⠀
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Marriage is not the goal.⠀
*Christ is.*⠀
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Marriage is not the fulfillment of your joy and happiness.⠀
*Christ is.*⠀
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Marriage is not your holy ambition.⠀
*Christ is.*⠀
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And to you, dearest friend- single or married, your position in Christ is a profoundly purposeful one! Make the most of your *now* season. Fix your eyes and set your heart on Jesus- knowing him, loving him, and following him all the days of your life.⠀
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I love y’all!⠀
xo – P♥️⠀