{"id":2720,"date":"2012-06-07T22:53:08","date_gmt":"2012-06-08T02:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.districtdiva.com\/?p=2720"},"modified":"2012-06-07T22:53:08","modified_gmt":"2012-06-08T02:53:08","slug":"crosswalk-com-vows-for-every-girl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/crosswalk-com-vows-for-every-girl\/","title":{"rendered":"Crosswalk.com: "Vows for Every Girl""},"content":{"rendered":"

Many people have been asking me about Christian blogs and devotionals to read. Let me put you on to game: Crosswalk.com<\/a> gives me life on the regular. There are so many awesome devotionals and bloggers and Bible study tips on this site! They are just a smorgasbord of blessings. \u00a0But this post<\/a> by Barb Peil that was forwarded to me by a friend had me slayed in the spirit for a good 15 minutes after I read it. \u00a0Get your life in this piece, “Vows for Every Girl,” by a 40 year old single Christian lady watching everyone around her get married and finding a new use for wedding vows:<\/p>\n

We\u2019re all familiar with the \u201cfor better or worse\u201d promise made at weddings, but this single girl over 40 discovered these wise vows make life beautiful for everyone.<\/em><\/p>\n

It happened every June. I would attend a wedding\u2014and an old, sad question would get stuck in my heart.\u00a0\u201cI wonder if I\u2019ll ever marry.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Although I would be sincerely happy for the new couple, the melancholy would sneak in around the time they said their vows, \u201cFor better or for worse . . . for richer or for poorer . . . in sickness and in health . . . to love and to cherish . . . for as long as we both shall live.\u201d<\/p>\n

Year after year I would hear those promises and ponder how extremely significant they were to a happy marriage. But it wasn\u2019t until recently that I realized how wise those vows were to every single girl . . . married or not.<\/p>\n

These promises came alive to me when I realized that I must make these same commitments to myself\u2014to see life\u00a0for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish for as long as I live.\u00a0<\/em>Day by day those vows are leading me to a full, unexpectedly fulfilling, happy life.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor Better or for Worse\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Life is sweet and life is hard for both the married and single girl. It\u2019s the truth.<\/p>\n

A single woman is often tempted to blame everything that makes her feel helpless or unhappy on the fact that she doesn\u2019t have a man around. My married friends have laughed when I\u2019ve complained that maintaining my car would be a whole lot easier if I was married. One resourceful girlfriend even changes the oil in her husband\u2019s car.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s just not his thing.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

You know it too, life happens to us all for better\u00a0and<\/em>\u00a0for worse. \u00a0A woman who spends her time thinking about\u00a0what she doesn\u2019t have<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0what she can\u2019t do<\/em>\u00a0will soon be like a sieve. Everything, no matter how lovely or good, will fall right through. Nothing will benefit her very much. She will believe the lie that real life is for other people.<\/p>\n

I choose to think better.<\/p>\n

Never having married, I\u2019ve had my own set of joys. I\u2019ve tasted the freedom of riding out waves of opportunities. I\u2019ve known the surprises that come from meeting my own financial needs (and getting someone else to change the oil in my car). Sure, I\u2019ve been kissed less than I should have been and I\u2019ve carried more than I\u2019ve wanted. But when I\u2019ve needed help, I\u2019ve relied on a good God and his good people\u2014just like we all need to do from time to time.<\/p>\n

Life can be better; life can be worse and most of it has nothing to do with marital status.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor Richer, for Poorer\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Will I have enough?<\/em><\/p>\n

We all worry at that question. Usually it\u2019s about money, but we also fear not having enough time, energy, love, or some other precious resource.<\/p>\n

These worries can easily undermine a single girl\u2019s security and whisper nasty \u201cwhat ifs.\u201d Fear will put her in a cage by convincing her to hoard everything she has\u2014even when what she has is enough.\u00a0What I learned at 40 opened that cage.<\/p>\n

Read more on Crosswalk.com<\/a><\/strong>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many people have been asking me about Christian blogs and devotionals to read. Let me put you on to game: Crosswalk.com gives me life on the regular. There are so many awesome devotionals and bloggers and Bible study tips on this site! They are just a smorgasbord of blessings. \u00a0But<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2721,"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":[27],"tags":[262,594,856,1005],"class_list":["post-2720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-usual-dithering","tag-devotionals","tag-marriage","tag-single-ladies","tag-vows"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7nB6F-HS","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2720","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=2720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}