{"id":2218,"date":"2011-09-30T09:40:12","date_gmt":"2011-09-30T13:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dcdistrictdiva.com\/?p=2218"},"modified":"2011-09-30T09:40:12","modified_gmt":"2011-09-30T13:40:12","slug":"feature-friday-my-true-soul-mate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/feature-friday-my-true-soul-mate\/","title":{"rendered":"Feature Friday: My True Soul Mate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Feature Friday will feature blog posts \/ stories from DCDistrictDiva.com readers who are either currently participating in the\u00a06-Months-No-Dating Pledge<\/a>\u00a0or have done so in the past and want to share their stories. \u00a0Here is reader Precious’ story:<\/em><\/p>\n

My True <\/em>Soul Mate<\/h2>\n

So,\u00a0 I decided to take a 6-Months-No-Dating Pledge (\u2026.6 months of taking a step back from everything, allowing myself to draw closer to God and allowing him to work on me).\u00a0 It\u2019s only been 6 weeks but I swear it seems that time is just flying by.\u00a0 The other day, I thought to myself \u201cIs 6-months even long enough?!\u201d\u00a0 The irony behind that thought is that we, as humans, tend to think \u201cif it isn\u2019t hard, then it isn\u2019t working\u201d.\u00a0 What\u2019s amazing is since I\u2019ve fully committed to the pledge (or better yet, \u201ccommitted myself to the chase of God, his will and purpose for my life\u201d) life seems to be free flowing.<\/p>\n

When I first decided to take the pledge initially I was scared\u2026secretly consumed by the constant flirtation with the idea of \u201cNEEDING\u201d to date to increase my chances of finding \u201cTHE ONE\u201d.\u00a0 Being 27, educated, careered, with no children, what else was I to do?\u00a0 That is supposed to be the next step, right?!\u00a0 If not, that is certainly the path that familial and societal pressures tend to force us single, young folk, into.<\/p>\n

However (in the past) coming up short and often feeling like there was something missing, I decided to give it and God a chance.\u00a0 After all what could I really lose by surrendering my life to God, whom I already truly love and admire???\u00a0 HA! What I didn\u2019t know was I should\u2019ve been questioning, what I could gain!<\/p>\n

Since surrendering not only my dating life, but my whole life to God, I have been so fulfilled.\u00a0 My desire for a pure and open heart, desire to serve, pray, love, and forgive has increased tremendously.\u00a0 Seriously, the last 6 weeks have truly been amazing!!\u00a0 Just in this short time God has been transforming my heart and my mind and as a result a lot of my relationships are really growing (with less conflict and more love).\u00a0 With the help of God and the power of the Holy Spirit, I have been able to let go of past anger and resentments and have already reconnected with some of the people that I truly love.\u00a0 These days my heart is filled with so much joy, contentment and peace, and I must admit, it feels darn good!!<\/p>\n

I will be honest though; everything hasn\u2019t been all peaches and cream.\u00a0 I have had several moments when I felt very weak.\u00a0 When I say weak, I mean feelings of loneliness, negative thoughts about whether I would EVER find a husband, and\/or feelings of unwillingness to do what it takes to develop a more intimate relationship with God (i.e. praying, reading the bible, fellowshipping).\u00a0 In those times, I acknowledged how I was feeling and asked people to pray for me as I also prayed for strength.<\/p>\n

Also, to eradicate such thoughts and feelings I\u2019ve made a conscious effort to further to discover more about myself and my purpose. I\u2019ve become immersed in new endeavors, in things that I love, and most importantly in more Godly activities.\u00a0\u00a0 For example:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Spending more time with close family and friends<\/li>\n
  • Increased church attendance and fellowship activities<\/li>\n
  • Involvement in new business endeavors (which I can\u2019t wait to share more details with you guys)<\/li>\n
  • Spending lots of time taking care of my body, feeding my mind and soul (working out, attending a Holistic health program, reading spiritual books and health related materials, etc)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    To add, I have been more consistent in spending time with God and I have recently been baptized.\u00a0 I have been able to better hear God\u2019s voice and better apply God\u2019s word to my life. Seriously\u2026my life is really changing for the better!<\/p>\n

    It is worth noting that I didn\u2019t plan for any of these changes.\u00a0 In fact, when I initially took the pledge I didn\u2019t have a plan at all and I was a little worried about where I would spend my extra time.\u00a0 I was also probably more negative in my thinking than I was encouraged for what I could gain from this experience…BUT in just 6 weeks time, I can say that I am more encouraged than ever and excited for what God has for me next.\u00a0 God has truly been showing up and showing out in my life and it all started with my decision to trust Him and allow Him to be MY TRUE SOUL MATE!<\/p>\n

    I can seriously go on and on about this but I encourage you to give God a chance as I leave you with this:<\/p>\n

    \u2026. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power<\/strong>, together with all the Lord\u2019s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ<\/strong>, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge<\/strong>\u2014that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.\u00a0 <\/strong>Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us <\/strong><\/em>Ephesians 3:17-20<\/p>\n

    With Love,<\/p>\n

    Precious<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Feature Friday will feature blog posts \/ stories from DCDistrictDiva.com readers who are either currently participating in the\u00a06-Months-No-Dating Pledge\u00a0or have done so in the past and want to share their stories. \u00a0Here is reader Precious’ story: My True Soul Mate So,\u00a0 I decided to take a 6-Months-No-Dating Pledge (\u2026.6 months<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2219,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,13,20],"tags":[42,43],"class_list":["post-2218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature-friday","category-guest-blogger","category-6-months","tag-6-months-no-dating-pledg","tag-6-months-no-dating-pledge"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2011\/09\/love_jesus_web.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7nB6F-zM","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}