Singleness and Friendship

Nonsense!

singleness

singleness

singleness

singleness

friendship

singleness

Our worth is not in our marital status but in our creational status

25 For when they rise from the dead, men and women will not marry, just like the angels of heaven don’t marry. Mark 12:25 34 Jesus replied, “Marriage is for the sons of this world only. 35–36 But those who are worthy of the resurrection from the dead into glory become immortal, like the angels, who never die nor marry. When the dead come to life again, they will be sons of God’s life—the sons of the resurrection. Luke 20:34-36

“The wise lay to heart our coming end and look beyond our end to our real beginning” Jon Bloom

“the point of marriage…. …investment in one’s own decline” Sarah Sands

“Having now spent more than forty-one years single, I have learned that it is indeed a gift. Not one I would choose. Not one many women would choose. But we do not choose our gifts, remember? We are given them by a divine Giver who knows the end from the beginning, and wants above all else to give us the gift of Himself.”

“it is within the sphere of circumstances He chooses for us — single, married, widowed — that we receive Him. It is there and nowhere else that He makes Himself known to us. It is there we are allowed to serve Him.” Elisabeth Elliot

Singleness is not who you are It’s where you are. And we’ve got to continue to fully show up there.

Lies… Life’s best may never come My highest happiness can only be gained on the other side of marriage Fullness of joy in one’s life can only come by way of a wedding

“In your presence is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Psalm 16:11

fears… Isolation and alienation Aloneness Loneliness

“Friendship is the greatest of worldly goods “Friendship is the greatest of worldly goods. Certainly to me it is the chief happiness of life” C S Lewis Two Monks embrace in the ‘Kiss of Peace’ Sculpture. Bruges. Photo credit: Michael Frost

“..we are all created by God to live within kinship networks wherein we share daily life in permanent relationships”

“No-one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age – homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields - and with them persecutions – and in the age to come eternal life.” Mark 10:29-30

Friendship – a four legged table

Closeness Constancy Transparency Trust

God is still writing your story

We are but a point, a single comma, and GOD is the literature of eternity