One afternoon I heard a radio interview with Elisabeth Elliot, the author of Passion and Purity. In response to her interviewer’s question about how to accept being single, she quoted Psalm 16:5–6, “Lord, You are my portion and my cup of blessing; You hold my future. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.”

Listening to her speak, I realized that my life was indeed pleasant. As a single woman, I lived in green pastures because the Lord was my portion and always provided everything I needed, emotionally and financially. I even had freedoms my married friends didn’t. Over the next few months I practiced being thankful for how God provided for me, and I found peace in my singleness. Although I still wanted to marry, I wasn’t consumed with finding a spouse.

Sometimes we live much of our lives looking discontentedly over the fence, coveting others’ fields. The boundary lines of singleness feel especially unpleasant for many women. We gaze at the lush, fertile pasture of married life, daydreaming about how wonderful it must be in those fields. But in doing so, we miss the beauty and provision of God within our fence. We can say, like David, that our boundary lines have fallen in pleasant places because God drew them, and He has our best in mind.