Choosing to Live a Full Life

 I've been asked to explain about my journey with singleness a few times in the last few months. That's always an interesting question to answer. How much detail I go into in my answer really depends on who is asking and the context for the conversation.

As I've answered this question, there is on thing that has stayed the same no matter what. That's the way I always start my answer.

I'm not single by choice. I want to be married and a family of my own. But, I'm not going to allow not having that to keep me from living a full life right now, in my current circumstances.

That's been my way of living since I graduated college. I graduated Bible college to jokes from my family that I "failed" Bible college because I was still single. While I know those words were meant as teasing, they made me realize that I had a choice in how I lived.

I could live as if those teasing words were true. And the result would be that I would put my life on hold while I did nothing but search for someone to marry. I could be discontent because things weren't exactly as I wanted them to be.

Or, I could acknowledge that I was single and had a desire to be married, and still live my life. I could choose to get involved in things at church, to build great friendships, to do things I loved - even when the circumstances weren't exactly what I'd hoped they would be.

This doesn't remove the fact that I'm not single by choice, nor does it eliminate the struggle that comes when circumstances aren't exactly what I would desire. But, it does give life meaning and purpose. It does give opportunity to be used by God for His purposes and His glory.

I think this applies to all of us in many areas of life. It doesn't matter the specifics of the circumstances we wish were different. The principle is still the same.

We will have a choice in how we will respond to those circumstances. 

We can let the circumstance mean we put our lives on hold until things change to how we want them to be. 

Or we can acknowledge that it's not what we would prefer and choose to live the best life we can in spite of it.