Recently I watched an amazing sermon from a well-known speaker and he prayed for chains and destructive cycles to be broken and then prayed for chains of singleness to be broken.

Whoa.

Is being single really comparable to a curse we need to break free from? Now don’t get me wrong, his intentions were for freedom and for people to live their best lives but all of a sudden, I felt embarrassed about my so-called “condition.”

So what’s that all about?

Why is marriage the final goal, even in Christian circles? I spent my 20s expectant and waiting for that godly guy, yet all I seemed to meet were great guys who, in hindsight, were removed from my life with good reason. I couldn’t see that at the time.

All I could see back then was a God who wouldn’t give me what I ultimately wanted. The ultimate guy and the dream fantasy life that went along with it. Now I see God knew how wrong those people would ultimately be for me.

As my 20s drew to a close and I entered my 30s, there was a sense of shame and a quiet whispering of “No, I’m single” whenever someone would ask me if I was married, had a boyfriend or a family, which seemed to happen almost each time I met a new person.

But really, it was the look or comment that would accompany this question that made me feel a lesser version of myself from the “Oh I’m sorry,” to the “Don’t worry, you’ll find someone” or even “But you look fine!” I learned to live with it but there was always the sense of finality in my story.

We’re all familiar with Paul’s singleness in the Bible and the power in this as well as the well-known verse of 1 Corinthians 7 on how it is good to remain single, yet we often choose to downplay this and unintentionally look down on those who are single. Should it be like this? Should we still be stuck in the mindset that marriage is the only way to be happy or could there also be another way?

from familyparliament.com