At age twenty-seven, I started going back to church. It was the most unlikely place to find a girl. It wasn’t one of those big, “happening” churches with large single groups. It was a little, Bible-believing church where the preacher preached God’s Word and the emphasis was on serving Him and others, not on serving myself. I decided to listen to the preacher. I decided to draw close to God. I decided to serve Him. All of these decisions led me to a new crossroads in my life….I felt that the Lord wanted me to leave my high-paying job, my comfortable home and my home state to go to Bible college. At first, I decided that this was too much to ask. I couldn’t do it. I thought I could wait just a little longer, make just a little more money and continue to just stay where I was at. I dated some more girls–”church” girls–but still, things didn’t work out. I realized I had made the wrong decision. I surrendered, and went off to Bible college. Eventually, while I was at Bible college and busy serving God, He sent the right woman across my path and I finally got married–at age thirty-two.

Here are a few of the important lessons that the Lord taught me while I was single:

1. I decided that my number one priority in life is my relationship with God. This would be the foundation

for all my future decisions.

Matthew 6:33 “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

the years, I have seen so many people try to do things in their own way, not trusting that the Lord knows what is best for them.

as God being first my life, keeping myself pure, and dating only a woman who was saved and had the

same heart for God that I did. For years, I was guilty of “doing that which was right” in my own eyes.

The devil will send plenty of decoys and he will try to get you to think that you are exception to the rule

(the Bible).

Psalm 127:1 “Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it…”

married, if that was His will.

Proverbs 16:3 “Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established.”

James 1:3-4 “Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”

Philippians 4:11 “Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.”

After twelve years of marriage, I have learned that God always gives His best to those who leave the choice up to Him–in His way and in His time.