I have not posted this article for concern over how it would be received...but I'm done hiding behind a bushel! Please enjoy and leave your feedback.

I couldn’t tell you how many devotions I’ve read about the season of singleness. At this point in my life. I’m 27, and typically I’ve heard from married people throughout the years, “You should be grateful, Use this time to find deeper relationship with God, friends, etc. Use this time to fulfill God’s purpose for your life. You would rather being single wishing you were married than married wishing you were single.” 

While they mean well, these quotes or little nuggets of "wisdom" are typically given by married men and women who have the best of intentions...or just have no idea of what to say because they did not walk 27 years without having been married.

That’s not to say that they are wrong. No, in fact I’ve gleaned some really great advice over the years by my wiser peers. However, what if we were real for a moment and talked about what SINGLENESS actually entails for Christian young men and women?

Do you ever notice how majority of the ‘Single’ devotionals there are out there are written by married people? Sometimes I want to SCREAM, but do you remember coming home to an empty house and having no one to share your day with?!

I can hear all you spiritual saints going, “well if you have Jesus, you shouldn’t be lonely.” Let me tell you something. If it wasn’t for Jesus I would probably be in a horrible relationship messed up and broken because I couldn’t live alone anymore. 

Six years ago I left church after having gone on the first date I’d ever been on in my entire life. I was sexually assaulted. For a long time I blamed myself. I was so naive when it came to dating that I got into his car by myself and I had no way out. 

I was so desperate for love and affection because I felt in myself I was NOT ever going to be pretty enough or good enough, and that whomever showed me attraction must be the ‘right’ one because I didn’t have many opportunities handed to me.

I was 21 and had never been kissed. Was I wrong for blaming the church for turning it’s back on me rather than getting to the root of the issues I was facing? Of course I was, but it does not excuse the fact that I was ill prepared for what could happen when you were alone with a man - especially one with evil intent in their heart.

I heard a preacher once say "Marriage doesn’t improve your Singleness, it Exposes it."

Who you are as an individual does not and will NOT improve with marriage. We should be taking this time to get to know Jesus and ourselves inside and out before we commit to another. We should take this gift of singleness to mature and realize that if it’s not God’s will for me to be married, then how might I fulfill His purpose for my life in other ways? 

 Like I said, those pieces of advise are not wrong and in fact I'm going to use them to make a point. This season is a gift, but I wish we wouldn’t glaze over the fact that it’s not easy either. 

Being a young woman who has to be the head of the household, the provider, the homemaker, and find time to take care of your health...it’s still not something I have mastered. We are people of progress. Whether we’re single or whether we’re married. We should always be striving for a deeper relationship with our Creator!

Paul states in Corinthians, “But I want you to be without care. He who is unmarried cares for the things of the Lord - how he may please the Lord. But he who is married cares about the things of the world - how he may please his wife. There is a difference between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman cares for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit. But she who is married cares about the things of the world, how she may please her husband.” 

-I Corinthians 7:32-34