Is the wait worth it?

This blog post has shown up in my life twice in one week.  It makes a very good point.  But it also tells me that I need to change my way of thinking from the last 35 years.  As a little girl, I dreamed of the day I would put on a white dress and walk down the aisle to my prince charming.  Barbie and Ken got married many times at my house.  :-)  Or maybe "renewed their vows" would be the right term.  Barbie always wore white, because she had waited for her wedding night.  (On a tangent, I really like how the Duggar girls talked about waiting a couple of weeks ago on their show). 

Growing up in a Christian home, I heard this a lot.  I heard it at church.  I heard it at church camp.  Youth rallies.  I even went to a True Love Waits lock-in and signed the card.  I never had a purity ring because I am not much of a jewelry wearer. 

Save yourself for your spouse and God will bring the right person into your life.

Become the person you want to marry and the right person will come along.

God has a perfect person out there for everyone.

Have you tried (insert name of dating website here)?

My neighbor's son's girlfriend's hairdresser's preschool teacher's daughter's coworker is a nice young man.  I should set you guys up.

If you're single, I'm sure you could insert several more phrases into the list above.  I've heard the above, met the coworker, neighbor, etc.  I've waited, signed the pledge, etc.  Yet year after year, no one has shown up.  My 35th birthday is in a month.  I was looking back and thinking that I have really not accomplished anything.  I'm not married, I don't have any children, I don't have a lot of material things.  I do have a college degree and a decent job, but the world tells me that this is not enough.  The world tells me that I need more to be happy. 

I think what bothers me more about this is that I've waiting for an invisible man that's not going to show up.  I've waited.  I've sat on my hands and I've not been living my life because I've been waiting.  I shouldn't be listening to the world.  I need to be listening to God.  God says I have a full life in Him.  Looking at my life from God's perspective, I've taught children about Jesus in several ways.  I've got to go as a sponsor to camp (with my heart daughter aka niece).  I handed out Bibles in a foreign country.  I've seen God's hand at work in my life in many ways.  I've got to share this with people.  I haven't done this as much as I should, but it's been there.

That was another tangent.  God made people to bring Him glory.  I've often thought that if a marriage in my life would bring God more glory, He will bring it to pass.  Or if I can bring more glory to Him as a single, that is the way I need to stay.  It's a very hard pill to swallow at times, the thought that I may and will likely be single the rest of my life.  Especially when it happens to others around me, or when people keep telling me that it will happen.  It makes me doubt God's plan and blessings in my life. 

So that's where I'm at right now.  I'm almost 35, and I have to change my thinking.  God's plan is best.  God has good things planned for me.  God can use me whether I'm single or married.  Will I ever know why He has kept me single?  Maybe not, but I can say this.  The wait HAS been worth it.  I've missed out on a lot of heartbreak by waiting, among other things.  I have a lot of opportunities to serve God because I am single (not that you can't serve God as a married person, but take care that you don't work your single church members too much just because they are single).

Not too long ago, my niece mentioned marriage.  Hopefully I can teach her, and my nephew, that waiting is good because it brings glory to God and not just wait because it will bring the right person along at some point.  I think I've said enough so I will sign off.  I've got a lot of reading and praying to do...