I just want to start off by saying thank you so much to everyone who has contributed to my World Race fundraiser so far! I am very happy to announce that I have met and surpassed my first goal of $5,000 that was due by May! I am 1/4 of the way there to my total goal of $20,000. Praise the Lord for He has blessed me abundantly! However, I still have a long way to go and I appreciate your continued prayers, references, and any fundraising ideas you may have. My next support raising goal is $10,000. If you feel led to give, you can click the “Support Me!” button on the top right of my support bar or contact me for information on how to give by check. Thank you and I hope you all have a blessed day!
Part 2: Singleness
Shelby Abbott (top right) was our emcee at Radiate.
For those of you who don’t know, Adventures in Missions has a policy that if you are single when applying to the World Race, not in a relationship or part of a married couple, you are asked to remain single from the moment you get accepted until the moment you return back in the United States after finishing 11 months of missionary work. The reason for this is to keep your focus on serving the Lord, helping out the ministry partners you will be staying with, reaching the unreached with your ministry for the month, and to avoid division between teammates and squadmates you will be serving with. Initially, this was something I struggled with. I feel a sense of peace in leaving the comforts of home and going into potentially dangerous countries to reach the lost whom are in need of the Gospel. But when it comes to willingly giving up my singleness to the Lord for almost two years in a time of my life when many of my peers are entering into more serious, long-term relationships or getting married, that is challenging for me. However, part of what God has been speaking to my heart about at Radiate has really helped me to come to terms with my singleness and start to see it as a blessing rather than a curse.
At the Radiate conference earlier this month, I went to Shelby Abbott’s break-out session about God, Dating, and Singleness. I want to share with you all some of the insights about singleness that Shelby shared with us. Something Shelby Abbott said that stood out to me the most is: “Singleness is not a curse. Singleness is not something to wish away. Singleness is not something to be fixed.” A lot of times, society tries to tell us that there is something wrong with us if we are still single and unmarried after a certain age. Shelby Abbott pointed out to us that the best person who ever lived was single. His name was Jesus. As Christians, we are not supposed to fit in with the crowd and do what everyone else does. If we are to imitate anyone, we are supposed to be like Jesus and grow closer in our relationship with God each and every day. Jesus didn’t seem to mind being single, because he knew that his purpose was to die on the cross for all of our sins and to glorify God in doing so. While God has put different purposes and callings on each of our lives, Shelby Abbott pointed out that “Singleness makes us uniquely free to pursue new things.” While this doesn’t mean that we can lives our lives however we want by chasing after sinful pleasures, Shelby emphasized that we should treasure our period of singleness to serve God with an undivided mind and heart. If you are a single person, you are uniquely free during this time of your life to pursue God without the added responsibility of your duty to your spouse and children. If you are a married person, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t pursue God in your relationship, but it does mean that you might have less time to devote to God than you previously did when you were single. The example Shelby gave us was that once he got married, he could no longer disciple other single men in his home until very late at night anymore because he now had a responsibility to be there for his wife.
Another thing that Shelby Abbott said about singleness that really spoke to me is: “Spend less time on looking for the right person. Spend more time on becoming the right person.” Many of us spend a lot of time looking for Mr. or Mrs. Right when we should be pursuing God and what He has planned for our lives. The right person will come on God’s timing and nothing we can do will make that person come into our lives any faster. If God has called you to married life, then that means your future husband or wife is out there somewhere in this world. Proverbs 31:10-12 reads: “A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.” When these verses were first pointed out to me, the words “all the days of her life” really stuck with me. This means that even before she met her husband, she honored him by striving to remain pure in body, heart, mind, and soul. It is important for us to do the same and to pursue God every day of our lives. I have been praying for my future husband for almost two years now, that he would be a strong Christian with a deep love for the Lord, for God to build him up in his faith, for God to watch over and protect him and his family, and that he would someday have a love for me that is only surpassed by his love for the Lord. I know God has set aside a special man for me, so I strive to remain set apart for him by honoring him in all that I do. Something God revealed to me at Radiate is that during this period of singleness, I can learn these truths for myself and learn to apply them to my own life to become more like Christ without the distraction of another person in my life right now. My time will come for dating, marriage, and children. But for right now, I should treasure these moments that I am given to be able to serve God during this unique period of singleness in my life.
My friends and I before the New Year’s Eve dance at Radiate.
