Well girls, we’ve made it through another year. We have high hopes for this year, the same as we did last year right? We’re hoping that this year we will have better relationships with our families, grow closer to the Lord and secretly, we wish that this would be the year that we fall in love.

Every girl wishes she could fall into a romantic, passionate, sparks-fly, “love is in the air” relationship with the boy of their dreams. For goodness sakes I wish for that too! You’d be crazy if you didn’t wish for that. Sorry.

So, maybe, just maybe, this will be the year that that actually gets to happen! We close our eyes and pray and wish on stars and dandelion seeds that this is the year. I’ve done that every year actually ever since I was 16, I think.

I’m not here to write an article to you about how wrong that thinking or wishing is. Far from it. I’m here to encourage you and tell you not to give up your hopes for a happy future relationship. Girls, if you lose heart, you stop praying and asking that that would happen. Well, in John 16:24 it says:
“Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”
And in John 14:13-14 it says:
“ And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it”

So don’t stop praying for a future husband. God may choose to lead you in a life of singleness and servitude to the church but you don’t know for sure. You don’t know that you will get married and you don’t know that you won’t get married either. All you can do is trust and pray. But don’t let it consume your thinking.

Don’t be thinking about love, dating, romance ect. day in and day out.

God blesses the trusting and humble servant. If we let these thoughts consume our thinking, it will come out in our actions. We start to act desperate and clingy around guys. We write about it on Facebook with little jokes and hints. We gossip about boys with our girl friends and ask about this guy or that guy. When this happens God is no longer in control of our love life-we are.

And trust me, you don’t want you in control of your love life.

You on the throne of your heart and an already needy personality can be the ingredients for pure disaster. We trust God to provide us with food every week. We trust Him to bring us our finances. Why can’t we trust God with our hearts?

So in order for us to keep our minds off of love and boys, we need to put our mind on other things! Things like preparing for marriage; preparing to be a mom, wife, homemaker and biblical role model in the church while at the same time praying for, and lifting up our future husbands in prayer to the Lord, trusting that He is in control of our future lives and living moment by moment in His grace.
And maybe you will never get married, but don’t let that stop you in learning all of these qualities.

Titus 2 says “that they [The older women] admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.”
That verse doesn’t say anything about girls who are called to be single. It just says all “young women”. Not the women cut out to be single, or rich, or missionaries. It just says to teach this to the young women. All girls are called to learn these qualities regardless of if they are going to be single their whole lives. It’s what God wants the young ladies of the church to learn.

So get started! Pick up a book about homemaking and read it. Pick up a cook book and set a goal of 30 days to cook 2 recipes a day from it. Read about gardening, babies, homeschooling, healthy living, parenting, crafts, sewing, godly marriage and home economics and put what you read to action. You can never know too much. There are thousands of resources out there to help you get started.

But whatever you do, don’t sit around pining for the day you get married and everything will be perfect and you’ll live happily ever after.

And don’t be moping around worrying about how you will never get married. Give over to God all your doubts, hopes, fears and dreams. He will put them in His jar of dreams next to all of the ones you’ve given to him before.

Next, after you start learning the qualities mentioned in Titus 2, PRAY FOR YOUR MAN. No, don’t pray that you’ll get a man, don’t ever pray what you wish for in a man. Pray for himspecifically. Pray for his day to go well. Pray that he will fall more in love with the Lord. Pray that he will learn the qualities that he will need to be a good father. Just pray for him. It may be that you’re already in love with someone but nothing is official. Pray for him. Maybe God has you in his life for a season and He’s called you to be praying for him. Maybe He’s put you in this mans life for a lifetime and you’re actually praying for your future husband unawares.

Ladies, your husband is in dire need of your prayers.

He covets them, he wants them and it is important that you live up to your calling as a prayer warrior and give him your prayers. Maybe you have a feeling that you won’t be married or you don’t feel the need to pray. That’s fine, God only wants’ you to pray if you mean it. But other men in the church need your prayers too. Your pastor, your worship leader, and all the men in ministry need your prayers. So please don’t think that it doesn’t matter if you pray or not, because it matters!
Pray every day for your men. Pray for your brothers, pray for your dad, pray for your church men, and  pray for your future beloved.

I had to learn to get in the habit of praying daily for my future husband and brothers in the Lord. It’s easy to forget.

So here are a few ways to help you remember to pray for your man.

• When you are washing dishes-pray
• When you are driving in the car-pray
• When you are shopping-pray
• When you are dreaming about your future kids and home-pray
• When you’re reading a novel-pray
• When you see a wedding catalog-pray
• When your cleaning your bathroom-pray
• Looking through the fridge for some food-pray!

You see, anything can remind you to pray for your FH. (I’ve personally done all of the above instances ;))

So take this year, 2014, to create a lifestyle of prayer and preparation for marriage. God wants to see us busy and diligent. Not bored and unrealistic.

Don’t let men become an idol in your life.

God should always be more than enough for us. Men can’t satisfy our hunger for love like Jesus can. Men will always fail us. When you are married, it’s pure logic that you are going to have arguments and disputes. But God will never let us down. We let ourselves down but it’s never God’s fault. He has more love for us than any mere human has room in his heart to love us. Don’t let anything come between your relationship with your King.

Bottom line, don’t stop dreaming or believing.

Occupy your time with Godly pursuits that will benefit you and your future family in the long run, and pray. Fill the empty moments in life with prayers for your future beloved. They are each counted and treasured by your Heavenly Father and First Lover. No matter what, God should always come first and foremost in our lives.

Thanks for reading beautiful girl! I hope this article challenged you to pursue a new lifestyle-one of prayer and preparation.  May God bless your year!