Joyfully at Home: Chapter Ten

Overcoming a False View of Singleness

Jasmine Baucham states:

Why don't we enjoy our single years?

Instead of wringing our hands in helpless, lonely melancholy, or conversely, allowing ourselves to become distracted and discouraged by the list of things that we must achieve before we can get married, as if marital preparation were some sort of checklist that we could mark off with a gold sticker awaiting us at the end (enter: tall, dark, and handsome), let's understand that, while honest evaluation of our level of growth can be sober and spur us onward as we mature in Christ, that maturity in Christ is the goal here--

not matrimony.

You could be married nine months from now, or you could be married nine years from now. The Lord might purpose for you to never marry. There is no way that you can know exactly when or to whom you will wed. But here's what we do know: The Lord has given us life, perhaps an unmarried one at this point, and has given us a mission to carry out, single or married (Matt. 28:18-20), and is constantly sanctifying us, single or married, and has called us to a purpose, single or married...

And that's a wonderful thing!

I am not suggesting that we should not actively prepare to be capable wives and mothers...but daughterhood is the best training ground. Checklists aside, yes, we should have goals in mind, but not superficial goals that will crumble and waver with every unmarried year that passes. Our goals should be spiritual ones, ones that we can strive for whether we are getting married next year of getting married ten years from now, goals that can serve the Lord if He calls us to a life of singleness or whether we end of having eight children. Our goal should be to bless others in whatever sphere of influence the Lord has placed us--in whatever context He has called us to live out the biblical womanhood that He has called us to.

To spend my unmarried years discontentedly counting the moments until I'm married, missing out on all of the blessings and opportunities the Lord has provided for me here and now, for His glory...that would truly be a waste.

...trust in the Lord's sovereign timing as you look towards the future.

check it out.