As a single, it’s easy to think solely about myself, but if I do I would not be abiding by God’s Word and not seeking ways to please the Lord.  I could try to argue with God (as I have at times) that I desire a relationship and have waited a long time, I deserve to have things that I’ve worked for, and I need “my” time.  However, these arguments are not convincing when talking to the Son of God.

While I was working in the corporate world, I chose to use my only two weeks of vacation time to lead church youth trips (which dumbfounded many of my non-Christian co-workers until I started including their kids on the trips).  Those trips brought me more personal joy and memories than if I had used that time only for myself.

A longtime single female friend, in her forties, has devoted the last 15 years of her life ministering to the youth in Eastern Europe.  She has the same desires as many women—to be a wife and mother—but until then she is devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit, and this pleases the Lord.

There are many ways to please the Lord with your time; it takes an open schedule, an open mind and an open heart.

You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love (Galatians 5:13).

In Our Finances

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5).

Our world has programmed us to think if we don’t have it, we need it, and if we do have it, then we need the newer, faster, and cooler model.  Not surprisingly, the responses I received from singles regarding finances were bent toward spending money, rather than earning or saving it. 

I appreciate the opportunities I have as a single regarding the ability to spend.  It is easy to want what others have, spend on things that are the “latest,” and to justify my spending since, at this point in my life, I don’t have immediate financial responsibilities to a spouse and family.  

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven … (Matthew 6:19-20).

Jesus wants us to have financial independence, freedom from having money control our lives.  He sent his disciples out to minister and told them, “Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts.”  To many of us, this is contrary to how we are living.  Our focus has become obtaining earthly pleasures instead of ways to serve and please the Lord through our finances.

Jesus tells a rich man who wanted to know what he must do in order to inherit eternal life, “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven” (Mark 10:21).