Philippians 4:8
8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
When I was a teen my church recommended that all young women read this book. And, because I’m a bookworm I decided I would follow those instructions. It took me around a week to finish it and not because it wasn’t good (this is a GREAT book!) but because I was a teenager, unmarried and much of it didn’t make sense to me…until now.
When you’re single you find yourself facing multiple types of temptations: eating more than you should, lying to your parents to get your way, dating more than one person, etc. I could think of a zillion. When you’re married, it is no different than when you’re single. When I was single I thought that whenever I got married all those temptations would vanish into thin air, I would be a proud married woman with all my needs taken care of, all my expectations met, all my dreams come true. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a happily married woman…but no man on this Earth can do all this for you and you shouldn’t expect them to or push them to. Christ is your one and only need meeter, dream materializer and soul-filler.
Going back to this book (Don’t worry, I’m not going to spoil it for you if you haven’t read it) it goes along talking about how infidelity starts with one single thought, in your mind, in your brain. Once you consider that thought worthy of your time, you start to ponder on it, consider it a little bit more until it later materializes into a sin.
God commands us to think of only pure, honest, noble, righteous, lovely admirable thoughts (verse above). We’re daughters of a King whether we be single or married. When we’re single we are commanded to keep ourselves pure, honest, noble, righteous, lovely and admirable for Christ. When we’re married, we’ve come from being all these things for Christ, so it’s easier to be them for our husband. Yet, we are always subject to temptations, the same temptations either single or married.
The world teaches us that when you’re single you can go around doing what you like, accepting temptations because they won’t hurt anyone nor you will be held accountable. They say, “have fun now, before you get married, then you won’t be able to enjoy yourself.”. I’ll be honest with you and say that I lived by those words for a few years in my life, and I can tell you that you are held accountable. All of your actions carry out consequences and these must be faced, either immediately or years later. God will allow you to decide what you want, but you will have to be responsible for all the choices you’ve made in your life and you’ll have to face the outcome. The world is seriously wrong. If you’re a single girl living on Earth, you need to account for all your actions to God. And all actions are preceded by thoughts…and it leads us back to Philippians 4:8.
Single gals, read this book…even if some parts don’t make sense yet.
Married gals, read this book.
Single gals who’ve read this book and then got married…read it again! 🙂