To The Person Who Feels Forever Alone

Just to be open and real with everyone, this has been me for the past two weeks. I felt like God honestly didn't care whether or not I found "the one" and if I were to be completely honest, I felt like God just wanted to trick me into being interested in someone just for it to be ripped away. Here I was a 20 year old crying in the middle of a kids camp service (actually 2 kids camp services. Minor details.) because I felt unloved and forgotten. I don't know how it is for guys, but for girls, I know that when we are single for a long period of time, we think something is wrong with us. Something about us is turning all the men away and pushing them toward all the other girls around us. We all have a plan of when we want to find the right person. For instance, mine was to meet my future husband before I was 20 so we could date for at least 2 years in college, get engaged my senior year at Lee, and get married the summer after I graduate. Unfortunately, this isn't a post that ends with me finding my future husband at the camp I was at for 3 weeks and strolling through the camp ground hand in hand. Here I am about to turn 21 in a few months and I'm single. I'm starting to realize that my plan is not God's plan and thank goodness it's not. If it was, I would currently be married to Nick Jonas and living the dream. I know I am not the only person that feels like this so I just wanted to share what God has reminded me these past couple of weeks.

1. You are not forgotten
God has not written you out of his plan. He hasn't forgotten you. His thoughts about you are all about how much he loves you and cares about you. His thoughts are completely different from the thoughts you have about yourself. When God says wait, it doesn't mean no. Jeremiah 29:11 says, "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." We have to stop constantly thinking these horrible thoughts about ourselves because we feel like God doesn't have a plan for us. He does, and sometimes his plan is just to wait. Take in the moment you are in and not dwell on the future so much.

2. Stop Worrying
I constantly worry. It's a huge problem. This past week was no different. Actually, it was a little worse. I was continually worrying about finding the right person because I felt like everyone else was finding the right person. Matthew 6:33-34 says, "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." A friend of mine kind of put it all in perspective for me. He asked me if I had the desire to get married. I said that I did, then he responded that it would happen in time because God wouldn't give me the desire to get married and have a family if he didn't want that for me. We have to wait for the Lord's timing.

3. Guard Your Heart
I had another friend tell this to me this week. If you know me, it took everything within me not to turn into an emotional wreck right then and there. (I did turn into an emotional wreck. Just not in public.) I feel like we are all wanting to find the right person so bad that we just cling to the first person that shows interest in us or assume someone is the person we are supposed to marry because we are already dating them. That's what I did and something I have to constantly check myself on. Your heart isn't something that should be played with. It's something precious and valuable. It should be given to someone who cares about it more than you do. Don't constantly keep giving your heart away. A person will come along that will take care of it and we all have to wait for that moment.