An aspect of marriage, which I think God knew about but most Christians ignore, is the motivation marriage can provide. Sex and the fun and beauty of children are two of them. But it also provides reasons to trust God: getting along with your spouse and kids is difficult if not humanly impossible.
I suggest these two motivations are impossible to duplicate in any other way. I've found myself doing things in marriage that, when I saw such difficulties approaching as a single person, I could easily step aside and avoid them.
The obvious conclusion is that marriage will motivate you to trust God more. At least it did for me.
And can you see how this attitude belittles the experiences and lives of single people? Do you think God is only able to use marriage and children to refine his followers? This is the problem them author is speaking of. Can you see it? Really, do you see it?
You suggest valuing marriage too much belittles single people…yes, that’s possible. But there’s another possibility too. It’s the possibility, since married people had almost always been single, that they might see the (sometimes involuntary) character change marriage can provide. A character change that, by the way, is mostly a result of God working in your life, not a result of a spouse’s nagging. To answer your question, NO I don’t think God’s unable to use singleness. It’s just that He didn’t, so much, for me. (I got married at 34.) The changes after I got married were far more profound.
I do know God refined me a lot less when I was single, which was until I was 33. If you'd asked me about it then, I'd have said I was perfectly willing to be used. Others may have a different experience, this was mine. God shaped me more after marriage.
An aspect of marriage, which I think God knew about but most Christians ignore, is the motivation marriage can provide. Sex and the fun and beauty of children are two of them. But it also provides reasons to trust God: getting along with your spouse and kids is difficult if not humanly impossible.
I suggest these two motivations are impossible to duplicate in any other way. I've found myself doing things in marriage that, when I saw such difficulties approaching as a single person, I could easily step aside and avoid them.
The obvious conclusion is that marriage will motivate you to trust God more. At least it did for me.
And can you see how this attitude belittles the experiences and lives of single people? Do you think God is only able to use marriage and children to refine his followers? This is the problem them author is speaking of. Can you see it? Really, do you see it?
You suggest valuing marriage too much belittles single people…yes, that’s possible. But there’s another possibility too. It’s the possibility, since married people had almost always been single, that they might see the (sometimes involuntary) character change marriage can provide. A character change that, by the way, is mostly a result of God working in your life, not a result of a spouse’s nagging. To answer your question, NO I don’t think God’s unable to use singleness. It’s just that He didn’t, so much, for me. (I got married at 34.) The changes after I got married were far more profound.
I do know God refined me a lot less when I was single, which was until I was 33. If you'd asked me about it then, I'd have said I was perfectly willing to be used. Others may have a different experience, this was mine. God shaped me more after marriage.
Spot on.