The Abundant Single Life!

Sex. The Church has been silent about the topic for too long. Unfortunately, it is a taboo topic for many Christ followers. Yet sex is powerful. It is valuable. It is a gift and worth celebrating within the context in which God designed it to take place, that is, in a covenant relationship with another human being for life. Our culture is certainly talking about sex. In fact, our culture uses sexuality to drive people's decisions every day. So why is the Church remaining silent, I wonder? It is time to talk about it, my friends. I believe that for every gift God has for us, Satan has a counterfeit. Sometimes it is difficult to discern the difference, especially when we are being barraged by lies. Thus, this is the importance of surrounding ourselves with people who will tell us the truth in love. It is so important to have those people in our lives who will love us right where we are at enough to not let us stay there. You know the kind of friends I'm talking about. It...

The Bible - I absolutely love God’s Word! It is full of relationship wisdom and so much more! Reading through the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) and simply observing the life of Jesus is a great place to start in gaining wisdom for the relationships in your life. In addition to the Gospels, the books of Ruth, Proverbs, and Psalms have all been especially meaningful to me in my journey of singleness. All of Scripture is a love letter to us from our Heavenly Father so it is all extremely relevant. My word of encouragement is to simply ask God where to start reading and then live and breath whatever He leads you to read! One of my favorite online Bible resources is Blue Letter Bible as it has multiple versions of scripture (e.g. NIV, NLT, ESV, etc.) and it has powerful study tools if you want to do a more in depth study. The Supernatural Powerof Forgiveness by Kris Vallotton and Jason Vallotton – I believe knowing how to forgive and receiving forgiveness is key to havi...

As a follow up to yesterday’s blog post, I want to share this podcast from my friend Christian: Marriage is a Gift, and So is Being Single .   But first, I’d like to introduce my friend, Christian! I met Christian while in ministry school in California because we both signed up to go on a missions trip to the Philippines. We had several preparation meetings leading up to our missions trip and after the first meeting, I was telling my roommate all about who was in my group. When I mentioned Christian’s name she got all excited because she knew him and exclaimed, “Oh! People call him the love doctor!”   It was the very first day of the missions trip that I got to see firsthand why "the love doctor" was his nickname. Let me tell you, it is very fitting! During the bus ride to the airport I had the most candid conversation about relationships, heartbreaks, and guy/girl dynamics with Christian. God used that conversation to bring about healing in my own heart from past relati...

Why are you single?  If you have been single for any length of time, you have probably been asked this many times. Sheer human curiosity wants to know why. Often times this question comes from well meaning people.  Parents. Siblings.   Uncles. Aunts. Cousins. Friends. Strangers. I know many have said it with the intention of meaning, "You're such a great catch, I can't understand why you're not married!" While it is a wonderful compliment for someone to think I am a great catch, it is the second part of that statement that often times makes me cringe. Let me explain. Having someone say that they do not understand why I am not married feels like they are saying one of three things: either there is something innately wrong with me, or  I am doing something wrong,  or God is doing something wrong. I know that is not the intent behind that statement, nor is it the truth. But let me tell you, as a single person who desires t...

When one of my dear friends, Claire, introduced me as an expert in waiting on God for a husband, I must say the introduction took me by surprise as I had never really thought of myself in that light. But after meeting with the young lady I was introduced to in this manner and sharing revelations, insights, and secrets for living the single life with contentment, I realized God has taught me a lot on this topic, especially in the last decade. While I do not claim to be an expert, I do want to be a faithful steward of all that God has revealed to me on this journey. So I have decided it is time to share the good news with other fellow singles. We need each other to stay encouraged. I hope that by me sharing the insights I have gained on my path toward contentment and living the abundant life no matter what life circumstances hold gives many other singles the freedom to enjoy life to the full more quickly.  John 10:10 is one of my favorite verses in scripture as God has used it...