To Be Content Alone

[aribell]

What I found issue with is that, with the sheer mention of desire to marriage, many in this thread jumped to conclusions about the overall contentment of those who desire marriage. It was almost as though they imagined a depressed and desperate person who's only focus in life was securing a man in matrimony. I found it short-sighted and jumpy. When some individual religious preferences explaining how they viewed single women who desire marriage took over their posts in a spirit of self-righteousness, it shifted the focus of the OP's original.

Hmm...I do think that's how the discussion was interpreted, but I think that was probably more a misunderstanding of the points that were being made. I think that desires can be tricky things spiritually. That isn't to say that they're illegitimate or bad necessarily, just that they don't automatically get a free pass or the Lord's stamp of approval. It seemed that in this discussion those who liked the original prayer were trying to say that all our desires must be submitted to the Lord first, and explicitly, and that sometimes, in spite of what we say we want He calls us down a different road. But I don't think we have to fear this, since whenever the Lord calls us to something different we usually end up seeing that that was the better path anyway, though we might have wanted something different at first. Not trying to revive the argument, just trying to summarize.

As far as contentment is concerned, I think I would say that "busyness" is not contentment and that lot of single women do struggle with genuine contentment whether they lead active lives or not (sometimes especially when they lead active and productive lives...and that's why I started thinking more about the nature of godly contentment, and ended up settling with Paul's "I know how to be abased and I know how to abound," meaning that I am not "affected" by being either single or married. In either state I will seek to love God and others, and insofar as I desire marriage, I desire it as a way to love God and others; but the purpose, whether single or married, doesn't change.

 

[Ms.Honey]

Hmm...I do think that's how the discussion was interpreted, but I think that was probably more a misunderstanding of the points that were being made. I think that desires can be tricky things spiritually. That isn't to say that they're illegitimate or bad necessarily, just that they don't automatically get a free pass or the Lord's stamp of approval. It seemed that in this discussion those who liked the original prayer were trying to say that all our desires must be submitted to the Lord first, and explicitly, and that sometimes, in spite of what we say we want He calls us down a different road. But I don't think we have to fear this, since whenever the Lord calls us to something different we usually end up seeing that that was the better path anyway, though we might have wanted something different at first. Not trying to revive the argument, just trying to summarize.

As far as contentment is concerned, I think I would say that "busyness" is not contentment and that lot of single women do struggle with genuine contentment whether they lead active lives or not (sometimes especially when they lead active and productive lives...and that's why I started thinking more about the nature of godly contentment, and ended up settling with Paul's "I know how to be abased and I know how to abound," meaning that I am not "affected" by being either single or married. In either state I will seek to love God and others, and insofar as I desire marriage, I desire it as a way to love God and others; but the purpose, whether single or married, doesn't change.

It says a lot that not all the singles in the thread saw some of the posts including mine as self-righteous and jumpy and could understand where we were coming from without themselves being self-righteous and jumpy as the accusers actually were.

 

[Ms.Honey]

Mar 4:11 And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all [these] things are done in parables:


Mar 4:12 That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and [their] sins should be forgiven them.


Mar 4:13 And he said unto them, Know ye not this parable? and how then will ye know all parables?


Mar 4:14 The sower soweth the word.

Mar 4:15 And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts.


Mar 4:16 And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness;


Mar 4:17 And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word's sake, immediately they are offended.


Mar 4:18 And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word,


Mar 4:19 And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.


Mar 4:20 And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as hear the word, and receive [it], and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred.


Mar 4:21 And he said unto them, Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel, or under a bed? and not to be set on a candlestick?


Mar 4:22 For there is nothing hid, which shall not be manifested; neither was any thing kept secret, but that it should come abroad.


Mar 4:23 If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.