The Pro and Con of Being Single, Part One (Leftovers)

Yesterday was one of the hardest rounds of teaching I think I've ever done. It was difficult because it was a lot of emotions and feelings, which I tend to not be the greatest at, and it was difficult because I was giving some thoughts that are hard, honest, and ones that could potentially create some messes within the singles group.

I was working on my lesson last week, thinking that we would do the pro of singleness this week and the con next week, but as I started writing the lesson, I realized that the intro. to the lesson was becoming the lesson itself. That's because, before we can look at singleness and how it can benefit or hinder the spreading of God's glory and the furthering the kingdom, we had to address some of the underlying thoughts and feelings that folks in our group seem to have about being single in the first place. Thus, yesterday was about thirty minutes of brutal honesty and the saying of things that needed to be said. For those who missed it, here are the three points:

• Some of you are mad at God because you're in your late 20's or early 30's and still single.
• Some of you feel you're utterly unloveable, and that's why you're still single.
• Some of you feel that your singleness is God's punishment for some past or present sin that you're dealing with.

I was so thankful to the Holy Spirit for giving the group that was there ears to hear and soft hearts to let these things be said. As I said yesterday, saying these things out loud doesn't make them go away. It doesn't make them necessarily even any easier to deal with, but at least it puts us all on the same footing as we begin to fight to see singleness as a gift from God for this season of our lives.