There is a relational economy in which success is the measure of self-worth. Sadly for the single with a longing, quite often success is marriage and anything less smells of failure. And the questions, the questions are as natural as the passing of time.

• “Is it because I’m ugly?”
• “Is it because I’m too fat, too thin, too tall, too short—too something?”
• “How long?”

These are the questions that are pressed from our lips every time a failed relationship deals us a kick in the gut. And while they are good questions to ask as we seek maturity, they can be debilitating, discouraging. No matter what the heart hears, failure tends to drown out the quieter, kinder voices that whisper, “You are loved.”

It is not that we don’t want to hear we are loved. It is that we are taught from an early age about this ultimate human relationship, and we have allowed it to act as validation of our worth. Our questions express our frustration. They confess our hope that if we could figure out what we are doing wrong we would be married. It is a hard thing to feel helpless. It is a hard thing to be asked to wait and trust a God we cannot see or touch, and yet this is our task.

The truth is that there IS something wrong with each of us, but that may have nothing to do with why we are single. We have a compelling need to grow, to mature, but this is true inside as well as outside of marriage. In seeking to answer the questions do not simply swallow the easy answers and expect that you will feel anything more than—temporary relief. There are no easy answers. Truth does not submit to our formulas.

The truth is we may be pretty and still single, handsome and still single, smart and still single. We may be fat, thin, tall, or short, and still be single. If we expect that being in one or the other of these categories is all that we need, we are deluded and these false expectations will yield bitter disappointment.

If the result we expect is contingent on what we do, then we MUST ever seek to adjust or change ourselves to find and keep a mate. We will live on this stage dancing for applause and distraught that at the end of the night we are still alone. Or marriage, if we get there, will be years of tiresome performances and not the rest we seek.

Try as we may, we can only change so much and it will be up to someone to love us as we are—warts and all. I say this not to discourage but to encourage us to love ourselves as we are, and where we are, even as we work to improve. If we rest content in the Lord’s love for us and are still single, then we can put aside thoughts of failure. Success is ours. Never mind that we are single.

• The truth is fat people find husbands and wives that love them.
• Ugly people find mates that remain loyal.
• Short people marry tall and tall marry short.
• Sometimes the most unlikely of people find love and live happily ever after.
• Some of these have never danced on the stage or spent hours in make-up.
• The only thing we are compelled to be is who He has made us to be and more of that each that.

Some of us may ponder the less hopeful question, “What did I do?”