Category: Spiritually Preparing for Marriage

  • I Want All of You, Forever

    I Want All of You, Forever

    Romantic movies have had a big impact on the way many of us view relationships between men and women. We are captivated by the lengths the leading male character will go to in order to show and prove his love for the female lead. Most of us long for this kind of romance with the…

  • Only One Person Gets the Prize

    Only One Person Gets the Prize

    1Corinthians 9:24(NIV) says, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.” All good athletes are disciplined when it comes to their training. One of the defining characteristics about an athlete is they all know they…

  • Baby Steps Will Yield Big Results

    Baby Steps Will Yield Big Results

    There was a time in my life when I celebrated the blessing of a new year with a long list of resolutions. Why did I put all that pressure on myself? I missed so much of the joy of newness by overwhelming my efforts with unreasonable expectations. Things like getting back into the gym, traveling…

  • Holding on When You Should Let It Go

    Holding on When You Should Let It Go

    One of my dear friends is 70 years old and admittedly, she’s stubborn, skeptical and cynical; in her mind, all for good reason. She says she loves God, but she’s never considered the reality of getting close to Him. Most of her faith practices are based on what she was taught as a child, and…

  • Consistent and Unwavering

    Consistent and Unwavering

    I don’t know if any of you have ever had a conversation with someone that is truly disappointed with life, but I have. I know a person that has lost everything in life that was important. This woman became jobless, then homeless and car-less, then her children were taken away. As a single mom, she…

  • God’s Plan for You Won’t Fail

    God’s Plan for You Won’t Fail

    “Why do grown folks always have to spoil everything?!!!” As a teenager dating my high school sweetheart, this is what I thought to myself every time my mother commented on my future plans for marrying him. I was absolutely sure of our feelings for one another, and you couldn’t tell me anything different. Daydreaming about…

  • Remember, God is Watching

    Remember, God is Watching

    Why do two people decide to get married? I will venture to say that most of us will choose to utter those profound two little words, “I Do!”, because we believe we’ve met someone we don’t want to live without. Our wise mothers and grandmothers will school us on this topic. They will tell us…

  • When You Least Expect It, It Shows Up

    When You Least Expect It, It Shows Up

    How many couples do you know that say they met their husband or wife at a time in their lives when they weren’t expecting it? I’ve heard it said many times. Some would argue that it doesn’t matter if a person is looking for love or not. What matters is that when they find love,…

  • Listen Carefully to the Truth

    Listen Carefully to the Truth

    Hebrews 2:1(NLT) “So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it.” After hearing her mother’s lighthearted but firm warning, a twenty-three-year-old daughter chuckled and told her over the phone, “You’re going to ruin my first date before it starts.” Her daughter had met a very…

  • Do You Ever Wonder?

    Do You Ever Wonder?

    Do you ever wonder if the path you’re on is just not getting you where you want to go? Does it seem like you’re traveling rocky terrain and you can’t seem to build the type of momentum you expected? Many single believers feel this way about relationships and finding the right person. They’re wondering why…

  • Showing God Your Proof

    Showing God Your Proof

    We are in the last weeks of what has been a very difficult year for most. I’ve spoken with many single women that have described it as “a time of my life that I never want to see again!” In most cases, this is because of the difficulty of handling things without the support of…

  • The Right Heart Will Put You at the Right Place at the Right Time

    The Right Heart Will Put You at the Right Place at the Right Time

    Luke 19:5-6(NLT) “5 When Jesus came by, he looked up at Zacchaeus and called him by name. “Zacchaeus!” he said. “Quick, come down! I must be a guest in your home today.” 6 Zacchaeus quickly climbed down and took Jesus to his house in great excitement and joy. 7 But the people were displeased. “He…

  • Work, Waiting, Want, and Will

    Work, Waiting, Want, and Will

    Ecclesiastes 11:4-5(NLT) tells us, “4 Farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant. If they watch every cloud, they never harvest. 5 Just as you cannot understand the path of the wind or the mystery of a tiny baby growing in its mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the activity of God, who does all…

  • Tell Your Flesh to Stand Down

    Tell Your Flesh to Stand Down

    I watched an interview of an actress promoting her new movie. She had also recently celebrated her first wedding anniversary with her husband. She talked about how supportive her husband has been of her career, and that its one of the reasons she didn’t hesitate to say ‘yes’ when he asked her to marry him.…

  • Speak the Truth About What You Want

    Speak the Truth About What You Want

     One of my sister-friends and I were talking on the phone the other day and I noticed she didn’t sound quite like herself, so I asked her what was wrong. She didn’t hesitate to reveal what was on her mind and heart. It was as if she had been waiting for someone to give her…

  • Good Love Starts from Within

    Good Love Starts from Within

    A very good friend and sister-in-Christ told me one day, “When a man truly loves a woman, peace in the relationship will follow.”  I remember thinking to myself, “How in the world did she come to this realization?” At that time in my life, I wondered what she must have gone through in her own…

  • When You Least Expect It

    When You Least Expect It

    One sunny summer day, my sisters’ and I had spent the afternoon shopping. Our hands were filled with bags as we were getting in our car. My oldest sister was driving and had just gotten behind the wheel. My middle sister, the most notable shopaholic among us, was finagling bags to try and open the…

  • Well Worth the Wait

    Well Worth the Wait

    My children, like most I imagine, are very inquisitive little creatures. No matter where we go, I can always count on this one question, “Where are we going?” They ask it even before they can buckle their seatbelts and then ask it while I’m driving. If they think the destination is close, they’ll ask, “How…

  • On the Minds of Single Believers

    On the Minds of Single Believers

    Getting married is on the minds of many single believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, and we can be crystal clear that God’s promises are a sure thing. Psalm 145:19(NLT) tells us, “He grants the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cries for help and rescues them.” This is a tremendous source…

  • The Spark We’re Missing

    The Spark We’re Missing

    My family and I were watching a movie about the story of Moses. There were many scenes in the movie that were not aligned scripturally, but we continued watching. After the movie ended, we began to discuss it and talked about when Moses met his wife, Zipporah, at the well. I was reminded of the…

  • Stay on the Right Track to the Blessing of Marriage

    Stay on the Right Track to the Blessing of Marriage

    When I was in my early twenties, I went out on a date with an officer in the military. He was very handsome, articulate, and tough as nails. We had gone out on a few dates, but one of them sticks out in my mind very vividly. We were out when we bumped into a…

  • The Promise, Process, And Presentation

    The Promise, Process, And Presentation

    A young Christian woman asked me, “I’m so scared to make a mistake in allowing the wrong person in my life, how will I know I’m making the right decision?” No doubt this young woman has seen the consequences many women have faced after they’ve made a wrong choice. Their relationships ended so badly and…

  • The Journey of Becoming Two

    The Journey of Becoming Two

    Several of my friends are single parents and raising children on their own. For some of them, relationships have been a revolving door. Some of those relationships looked promising, as if they were going to end in marriage, but things didn’t work out.  While we don’t talk about it too much, I know that some…

  • The Words I Speak Tell My Story

    The Words I Speak Tell My Story

    Researchers say that a person can speak several thousand words in an hour, so you can imagine how many words the average person can speak within a day or a week. If you think this is a lot, it’s generally assumed that women speak twice as many words a day than men. Whether it’s because…

  • God Will Help You Overcome the Challenges of Being Single

    God Will Help You Overcome the Challenges of Being Single

    I read a study this week that said that single people between the ages of 21-34 are still struggling to find what they consider a compatible partner. For many of them, living together is a more common option than marriage and it’s becoming increasingly prevalent. These studies suggest that those women who do marry typically…

  • You Don’t Know Your Heart as Well as You Think

    You Don’t Know Your Heart as Well as You Think

    If you’re single, there are bound to be days when being without a mate seems overwhelming. Most of the time, it doesn’t bother you all that much, at least that’s what you tell yourself. But there may be moments when being without the companionship of a significant and special person in your life just breaks…

  • Is It Worth It to Step Away from God’s Standard?

    Is It Worth It to Step Away from God’s Standard?

    Heavenly Father first introduces us to the knowledge about the part of our souls called the ‘will’ in Genesis 1:27(NLT). This verse informs us, “So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” We are created in God’s image. This means…

  • Should You Pursue A Man?

    Should You Pursue A Man?

    Whether or not a woman should pursue a man is a question that many women have been asking a long time. I’ve had this conversation with a few of my friends, and one of them was very adamant about her approach. She was divorced a few years ago and has loved being single. Admittedly, she’d…

  • Live by His Power!

    Live by His Power!

    Ephesians 3:20(NLT) says, “Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.” This verse is so extraordinarily wonderful that we can scarcely take it in. All praise to God, for He hasn’t kept this magnificent morsel of truth…

  • Who Do You Belong To?

    Who Do You Belong To?

    A wonderful sister in Christ had her first date with someone that she’s known for a while, but he was never really on her radar. The date went rather well, and she felt really good about things. A few days after their date, she wondered whether it was a good idea for her to reach…