DID YOU KNOW thaaaaaaaat...RIGHT NOW...as a SINGLE PERSON...AS A SINGLE DOLLAR BILL...
Did YOU KNOW THAT you can...GASP...ACTUALLY have a LIFE??? OMW!!! SHOCKER??? Right people??? HAHAHA!!! Soooooooooo...
Growing
up, my pastor’s daughter Devi, always had a hope chest at the foot of her bed. A hope
chest is like a wooden cedar box that girls use to put stuff in it to save for
when they get married. Maybe they were never popular where your from, buuuuut at MY CHURCH they were sooooo COOL!!! From the time we were little kids, Devi's mom and grandma’s
would give her things to put in her hope chest for that one day when she got
married. Her hope chest was filled with all sorts of household items such as,
potholders, cup coasters, candy dishes and all other sorts of neat trinkets and
things. As a child, I was fascinated at the aspect of collecting all these “adult” things, Oh how I wanted one of those
hope chests.
.
For
my sweet-sixteen birthday, my mom scraped up the money and surprised me with a
beautiful cedar hope chest. I was ESTATIC! I began filling it with all kinds of
things for when I got married. I had dish towels, mixing bowls, measuring cups
all kinds of exciting stuff, for when I got married. People would give
me stuff at every birthday for when I got married, my hope chest was
getting really full as the years passed by and marriage was NOT coming around.
People giving me gifts for my hope chest started getting old on me, I was like, HELLO, hair accessories and Starbucks
gift cards are great presents too! Then as my friends started getting married I
realized, hey, I can just go shopping for them in my hope chest and save myself
some money on wedding gifts.
.
So
the stuff in my chest started to slim down to only the really nice name brand
household items that I really did like. Then one day, I was looking at the
things that I had left in my hope chest, a multi-colored mixing bowl set,
baking dishes, cute daisy dish towels, measuring cups, hand-made ceramic dishes
I had made and designed from clay in my high school ceramics class, an apron, I
was like, Ok this is RIDICULOUS! I haven’t even lived at home with my parent’s
in years. I cook! I clean! I eat! I wash dishes! These items that I’m holding
onto for one day when I get married, I can be using RIGHT NOW!
.
In
about ten minutes flat, I completely emptied out my hope chest. When my
brothers heard this they were like, Oh Mary’s giving up on getting married! You
lost your hope for a husband! I was like, No, I haven’t lost my hope, I’m just
not waiting for a husband...
to have a life.
The life that I always dreamed of having when I grow-up as a little girl, I am living right now. (Minus the husband and kids of my own!;) It may not seem like a big huge aspiration in life, but all I have ever really wanted was to be a stay-at-home-mom and to be used of God!!! It may NOT be what YOU would consider a huge aspiration...BUUUUUT it IS mine!!! I am blessed to be able to say, that God has worked it out in my life to be able to do exactly that. God has allowed me to work a job through a company from home. I cook, I clean, I have all my cute little aprons hanging from a hook on the wall, I am continuously surrounded by children and God continually uses me in many different ways in his kingdom. People joke that I am the house-sister or the stay-at-home-aunt and I love it. It may SEEM like a simple and mundane life, but trust me, I am NEVER bored!!! (Its HARD to be bored...when you are ME!!! HAHA!!!) THIS is the life I want to live and I am HAPPY!
There was this girl I knew back in the day, in her early 20's, beautiful, but STILL single!!! So I hear that her family wanted to go on this amazing European cruise...I was like WOW!!! How exciting!!! Right? Oh but NO!!! All I heard was POOR thing...she was sooooo UPSET about it, she didn't want to go with her family!!! WHY??? Because she had ALWAYS dreamed of going to Europe on her HONEYMOON!!! Sooooo she didn't want to go!!! I was like whaaaaat??? Are YOU SERIOUSLEY KIDDING ME??? I'll GO!!! Your family can adopt me for a couple of weeks IF you just can't bear the thought of going as a SINGLE with her family on a European cruise!!! I mean, I am SINGLE and I very much want to get married...buuuut HELLLLLOOOOO...an ALL expense paid cruise to another continent...I'll TAKE IT!!!
ANNNND THIS is the kind of stuff that I am talking about, you do NOT have to WAIT till marriage to have FUN! To ENJOY LIFE!!! Actually, if you think about it, you might NOT have as much cash to really even do this kind of stuff when you do get married!!! (Unless you marry a really rich person...which MOST of us...WON'T!!!;) Being single, traveling to quite a few amazing places has been ONE of the nice things I have been able to take advantage of in my singleness!!!
What are YOUR hopes and dreams aside from marriage? Do you have goals you want to achieve? Do you have places that you want to go? People you want to meet? Things that you want to try? Hobbies you want to explore?
Don't PUT YOUR LIFE ON HOLD!!!
As far as I know, and have searched the BIble, there is ONLY ONE thing that God asks of single people to refrain from. He asks to keep ourselves pure till marriage! Not to live in convent and keep from enjoying ourselves...ABSTINENCE PEOPLE!!!
Other than that we can
PARTAAAAAAAAY!!!
(In a good-clean-Godly-on-fire-for-God-Apostolic-Holy-Ghost sort of way!!!;)
"...nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God,
who gives us richly all
things to enjoy;"
1Timothy 6:17
♥Mary Frances :)
