There is a lot of pressure in our society to be married, like that is the ultimate goal to have a fulfilling life. A boy and a girl are dressed up to be the flower girl and ring bearer, even though little ones seldom do this well at weddings and either steal the show, or cry or don’t do what they are asked, They are children after all, some just toddlers.
And then all the prince charmings meet the beautiful princess in all those Disney movies.
Prince in english is a very weird word, it is the only one in our language that you add an S and it makes it plural add another one and it becomes female. Prince to Princes to Princess.
My Freshman year at IWU, Chaplin White was going through a divorse and time for the Faculty Christmas party came and he didn’t receive an invitation, he was given one when he was married, and after asking received one so he could give grace, and it was then he realized that the only people who were ever invited to the faculty Christmas party were married couples. And that left out a number of professors who were never invited.
He sought to do something about that for his fellow single professors.
Then we go to Saint Valentine's Day, where being alone is almost considered a sin in our society.
But that is not the way with God. God loves us just the way we are, and we don’t have to be married to be loved or of use to God.
Jesus just finished talking about God’s disdain for divorce when he talks about being single and what a gift it can be. In Jesus days this was a revolutionary idea! That being single is important to a society, and Followers of Jesus.
People who have made themselves single for the Kingdom of God. and Jesus says that there are few who could do that, but they are special. Unbelievable that Jesus would say that.
One of the greatest examples of this is Paul, who will be shipwrecked, stoned, whipped, and he did not have to worry about his wife being taken care of he could put everything out there for the Kingdom of God.
Single people can be very Special: God has special work that only single people can and will do, and it is great and meaningful work.
That there is important work to do and we need to be open to doing. Singles are unencumbered by the needs and wants of a spouse and or children. They may not have to save up for their children’s college. They don’t have to check with their wives to see what they have planned. There is nothing you have to do, but there is so much you get to do. It is a blessing to be single for life.
Everyone one of us has been single. No one is born married. Singleness is a gift.
The first person I knew was Single her whole life was Miss Stover. She came to Faith church in Elmhurst as a Penmanship teacher and would later teach English. She served on many committees within the church and when I got to know her she was retired from paid work, but was still a servant, teaching seventh and eighth grade Sunday School.
She had beautiful writing and in her free time wrote many letters to encourage people in church. I received many letters encouraging me and congratulating me along the way. Miss Inez Stover was a benefit to the church in a very different way than the different Pastors we had who were all married, And in a very real way all the people she taught were her children. What a blessing she was.
She has graduated into heaven; well done good and faithful servant, who gave of herself and never held anything back. The church purchased property next door that gave them their parking lot, and in this property was a couple small apartment rooms. One of the people was a lady caught where she was because she couldn’t read. Inez met her when she was available and taught her to read and write and changed her in many ways.
The origins of the United Methodist Women, started in Boston as women looking out for women’s needs in the developing world. They raised a good deal of money and wrote New York where the Methodist Episcopal Missionary Society was located, and said they had raised some money to help women in the developing world. The man wrote and told them where to send their money and he would try to see what he could do.
The women were not satisfied, and The Woman's Foreign Missionary Society was organized in the Tremont Street Methodist Episcopal Church, Boston, in March 1869 by eight women who responded to a call sent to thirty churches.
The first public meeting of the society was held in the Bromfield Street Methodist Episcopal Church, May 26, 1869. The discussion was quickly followed by decisive action. At a business meeting held by the women at the close of the public occasion, it was voted to raise money to send as a missionary to India, a single woman named Isabella Thoburn, sister of Bishop James Mills Thoburn.
An appeal for a medical woman soon followed. As a result of prompt and efficient measures to procure funds, the services of Isabella Thoburn and of Clara Swain, M.D. another single woman was secured.
These two women sailed from New York City for India, via England, on November 3, 1869, reaching their destination early in January, 1870. They were cordially received, and soon entered upon their work, Thoburn organizing schools and superintending the work of Bible readers, and Swain's medical ability gaining for her admission to many places that were closed to others.
This society sent to India, China, Korea, and Japan the first woman medical missionary ever received in those countries.[1]
By 1903, its 34th year, it had 265 missionaries carrying on its work in India, China, Japan, Korea, Africa, Bulgaria, Italy, South America, Mexico, and the Philippines, by means of women's colleges, high schools, seminaries, hospitals, dispensaries, day schools, and "settlement work" All single women.
Jesus says it is not easy for people to do this, especially during Jesus’ day, but today it is getting easier. We need single people who will give of themselves and not count the cost. They can do far more than married people.
As a Church we need to continue to bless single people and not leave them out.
Everyone belongs to God’s Kingdom, Married, Single, divorced, widowed, today thirty seven percent of people over eighteen are single, the number under eighteen is a lot higher.
Paul the single man writes "I have learned the secret of being content in every and any situation" I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" Phillipians. 4:12, 13
"My grace is sufficient for you" II Corinthians. 12
I Corinthians 13 is often used for weddings, but Paul is telling how we as The Church should live. Single and married, children and adults.
God loves us no matter what and we need to love others no matter what. We all belong to God and are special in God’s sight.
Married people like myself often lean on God and their spouses to be whole, but single people rely on God.
