Hot Topics: The Single Life
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Why One Isn't the Loneliest Number
I'm not ashamed to admit it: I spend a lot of time alone. I'm a never-married 30something woman who has no children, who lives alone, and who spends most days in an office by myself. And in all my years of alone time—eating alone, driving alone, sleeping alone—I've learned a valuable lesson: Alone isn't the same as lonely.
I'll be honest, some of this truth sunk in by default as I felt ...
Related Topics: alone, Identity, Loneliness, longing, Single, Single Again
Singleness and Scripture
I had the privilege of speaking at a church one Mother's Day. I felt privileged, because any time I'm able to talk about Jesus is a treat. But I also felt uncomfortable, because I'm over 40, single, and childless. Mother's Day is a celebration earmarked for minivan-driving women with a gaggle of children—not women like me. The day's meant for women who woke up to a lovely breakfast prepared ...
Related Topics: Affirmation, Identity, Singleness
Across the Aisle
You almost missed this moment, I sensed God speak to my heart as I watched my friend's two little boys, Ben and Zach, dashing excitedly through my sprinkler one lazy summer day. Amidst their squeals of delight, I was overcome with emotion as I grasped God's implication about the power of my choices.
I'm blessed to have close friendships with several families. That might not seem unusual, except that ...
Related Topics: Fellowship, Friendship, Relationships, Singleness
The Smallest Ministry
It was the smallest of ministry opportunities.
Mary, the pastor's assistant at my church, called one evening to ask if I'd be part of a new group that would stay late on Sunday mornings to straighten pew racks and prepare the sanctuary for the following week. I was one of several single women she was calling to solicit help, she said, explaining that she hoped to provide an opportunity for the women ...
The Season of Waiting
If I were to make a list of my least favorite things to do, I'm pretty sure waiting would rank in the top five. There aren't many things I enjoy less than remaining in that agonizing place of staring my hopes and longings in the face and wondering how, and when, and if God will ever allow them to come true.
"Why doesn't anything just happen for me?" I often find myself grumbling, tired of waiting, ...
Choosing Joy
By the time March rolls around, I know that whatever resolutions I made at the New Year will have gone the way of any lingering snow by now—that is, trampled down and shoved off to the side somewhere. So last year I scrapped the resolutions and declared a theme for the year instead, almost a mantra I could repeat to myself: "Choose Joy."
I was tired of waiting for a certain set of circumstances ...
The Sacredness of a Broken Heart
We all know it hurts to have your heart broken. And now they finally have the scientific data to back it up. Recent research from the University of California, Los Angeles, indicates that emotional pain may be more closely linked to physical pain than scientists previously realized. According to Naomi Eisenberger, lead author of the study, the distress from rejection registers in the same part of ...
The Promise I Thought God Forgot
Maybe it was just one of those mornings, or a touch of the post-holiday blues. Or maybe my coffee hadn't had time to do its magic yet. But for whatever reason, when I read a certain verse recently, it just rubbed me the wrong way.
On any given day, if you asked me if I believe the Word of God, I'd say yes. And if you asked me if I love the Word of God, affirmative again. But when I hit verse 6 of Psalm ...
The God of the Middle
In just about any context, the middle typically isn't prime real estate. Who likes the dreaded middle seat on an airplane? If someone tells you you're "middle of the road," it isn't exactly meant as a compliment. We tend to think of the middle as a place we're stuck … the middle of a traffic jam, the middle of nowhere.
The middle can be a wearisome place in everyday life, too, which is unfortunate, ...
An Outsider's Guide to Baby Season
"Don't drink the water," my coworker advised me with a wink. We'd just heard that five of our colleagues are pregnant … and that's just on the third floor of our office. As an unmarried woman with no children, I knew what she was getting at. But even so, her comment had a bit of a sting to it.
In the family I grew up in, motherhood was considered a high calling, and my own mom had three children ...
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