Wednesday ~ Good Single (=) Good Married

Yesterday, I read the blog of a young woman who had just gotten engaged. I don’t know this gal, but I’ve read her blog enough the past year to know that getting married was her main goal in life. That’s peachy – it’s sorta one of my goals, too. :) She talked long and eloquently on how perfectly God had written her love story, how the Lord has been SO good to her in her engagement, how through the Lord’s perfect plan all her dreams had come true in ways she could never have imagined possible. The predominant theme was “look how good God has been to me” – in the happy wake of her engagement.

This isn’t the first “I’m engaged, God is so good” thing that I’ve read. I’ve heard a lot of posts, articles, books, blogs, and conversations that praise God in rapt adoration for His goodness in bringing them their spouse. And it’s true! God IS so good in writing perfect love stories for us His daughters. He DOES deserve all the praise and glory, because He’s the one who brings two people together! Amen and amen!

But what about me? I’m single. I have single friends. Is God not being just as good to us, just because we are single? Is God not writing a perfect story for me right now in my today, just because I don’t have a ring on my finger?  I sometimes think He’s not. But truth says…God’s goodness never changes. He’s the same yesterday, today and forever…which means He has no varying degree of goodness. When we single girls get engaged someday, God’s goodness doesn’t increase (it can’t!), only our outer circumstance changes. There's no greater-than-less-than with God.

I don't want to be guilty of seeing the goodness of God only when I see my dreams coming true. I don't want to be guilty of holding out on my praise-giving because I’m single. I don't want to be guilty of viewing my singleness as a “pre-God’s goodness” ordeal. I don’t want to be the girl who prays and pines for marriage, continually questioning God's goodness and plan, and then when/if marriage comes, praise flows like an eloquent sonnet.

And so….

I just want to say that God is so good to me today! He is so good to allow me the opportunity of working a job in the work arena, rubbing shoulders with all kinds of people. He’s so good to give me the chance of having my very own paycheck! I do marvel at where my life is today – living at home, meeting friends for dinner tonight, sharing a door-less room with my two sisters, roasting marshmallows in the fire out back with my youngest brother, being able to hob-nob with my nieces and nephews any day of the week without limits, being there to watch as my 20 year old brother brings his new car home, being a part of my younger siblings’ every-day life. I have a Goodness all my own today.

- God is so good to me today: even though I ate a bowl of cantelope on-the-go with a toothpick as I drove in my car to work…instead of fixing breakfast in my comfy pj’s for a husband who’s doing the off-to-working. Both are 100% God’s goodness. I have all of His Goodness today.

- God is so good to me today: because I pay my own bills out of my own paycheck…instead of leaving that all to a husband to take care of. Both are 100% God’s goodness. I have all of His Goodness today.

- God is so good to me today: because I sit in a tiny, airless office for 8 hours…instead of running a house like a Suzy-homemaker. Both are 100% God’s goodness. I have all of His Goodness today.

I’m praising God at the top of my lungs today for His never-changing, ever-constant, always-with-me, unwavering, immeasurable, gotta-have-it goodness! 

And let’s put that on the record! =)