Happily Ever After: Devotions from Time of GraceSample

When You're Single: Love Your Singleness

Do you think it’s strange to begin a devotional series on marriage by celebrating singleness? Here’s the point: You will probably not be able to build a happy marriage until you have learned to like and accept yourself as a single person.

St. Paul wrote, “it is good for a man not to marry” (1 Corinthians 7:1). “I wish that all men were as I am [i.e., single]” (1 Corinthians 7:7). Huh?? What on earth could he mean?

For one, God created you as a single person. He adopted you as a single person, drew you into his family, and developed a relationship with you all by yourself.

For another, it is a dangerous fantasy to think that if you are miserable as a single person, marriage in and of itself will make you happy. Misery is portable. If you are insecure and needy as a single person, you could become a permanent energy drain on your poor spouse.

But joy is portable too. So is contentment. Enjoy who you are--a masterpiece of God’s design, dearly loved, redeemed by Christ, and immortal. It’s much more fun to be married to someone who’s secure and at peace.