It's good to be single.

Jesus also said in Matthew 4:4
4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Many of us, don't understand that our spiritual needs is greater than our physical needs. Love is a spiritual need and only by taking love from God can we be satisfied. And that love we need to pass on to others.

One thing I love about being single: I can sleep until I want to get up.

Parents keep pictures of their kids on their phones. I keep pictures of places I sleep. I can whip my phone out and show them off any time.

"This is my couch... And this is the bed in the spare bedroom, sometimes I sleep there just for a change of pace... Sometimes I sleep TEN HOURS, it's crazy... This is my car, sometimes I pop out on lunch break and catch a nap if I feel like it..."

why would you trade God for a mere man (or woman) I dont know.

I found this heavy tome withdrawn from the library called 'sacred marrriage' and it was several hundreds of pages thick. The author was a pastor and it was an academic treatise really on how marriage was really very holy and that one ought to treat it as such training ground for God, but I figured he protested too much. If it was as sacred as he made out, the book would have been co-authored with his wife, but it wasnt.

Just because her name was not in the references page doesn't mean she didn't have input. I bet she contributed a lot.

I tend to think it was the catholics gave people this idea of 'holy matrimony' as a way of recruiting people into their church.
Non catholics that marry catholics have to convert. They have to take classes and everything, or accept that their children will be brought up as catholics.

People that havent read the Bible before probably wouldnt even have a problem with it if they were desperate to marry, but someone who did wouldnt want to join a cult!

And the ironic thing is their 'Fathers' or monks and nuns and priests are actually forbidden to marry. It has something to do with owning property. But if you marry into the catholic church they own your property anyway, because tithing from it is enforced. A lot of non catholic churches have also introduced this idea.

I was in a public parking lot the other day, just eating lunch and checking out what was on CC.

This lady pulled up next to me, and I could hear her talking on her phone about how she was married with kids, but still felt like she was missing something- talking about how she had already talked to like 4 psycics, trying to see if there was "anything out there".

I wasn't about to interrupt her conversation, but I did pray for her. I think worldly people, even pre-christians, expect marriage to be this point where "life has finally arrived". It seems to really complicate things when that turns out not to be true. Just an observation.

Yeah... money, fame, retirement, marriage... all those are supposed to make you magically have a complete life when you reach them. Oh, and the "American Dream" which I think is a spouse, 2.6 kids and a house.

None of them give what so many people think they should feel when they get them.

Easier said than done. If it were that simple, there would be very few Christian divorces. I know way too many women who were deceived by their husbands. All was well while they were dating, and it fell apart once they were married. My daughter fell for that one.

Women can be just as devious. I know that from personal experience.

Excellent point. What is missing in most lives is Jesus. He alone can satisfy the void in the human heart. Only those who are born again know true contentment.

That's what I believe.

But, ss good as family is, I don't think it really helps Christians be "less selfish" either, like a lot of people say. I don't think taking a wife and makin' babies is all that selfless... And as the scriptures say

In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.

and

If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

We see that not doing those things makes somebody a particularly terrible person though...

If anyone does not provide for his own, and especially his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

So, somebody being good to their own spouse, and their own kids is basic enough that the heathen can do it. It's when we learn to love other Christians for the sake of Jesus- I think that's when we really get outside ourselves. What is required of us- "love your enemy"- I think that's on a whole different level; and I think it really takes the Holy Spirit to get us there.

I disagree with the first part of this statement. Marriage can mature a person, having kids forces a person to turn the focus away from themselves. It's replacing kids with dogs that doesn't do anything to mature us. Dogs worship us. They feed our narcissism. Kids on the other hand...

But, the last paragraph is entirely true. That does differentiate the believer from the unbeliever.

that is so true, sorry to hear about that.

Even unbelieving men often grow up fast when they have kids. One of our more infamous sportsmen used to laugh about injuring opposing players, boasting that one of them never played again after a hit. When he had a son of his own, he started thinking about how he would feel if it happened to his son. Suddenly his whole attitude changed.

For sure Christians should live on a higher level than the world. That Paul had to exhort Christians to love their wives says that it not automatic.

Yep! ...
....Live by The Spirit, and you will NOT gratify the desires of the flesh.....
Not many of us understand living by The Spirit unfortunately. Therefore the result of divorce even in the Body of Christ! The enemy fights, opposes and frustrates the plan of God, and this is so even in marriages. He tries to make sure the opposite of what God has said concerning marriage is what obtains, especially when we become careless in our walk with God. Ability to love our spouses is divine. When we think we can do it in our power, we lie. There is too much temptation out there that can make a man/woman cheat on their partner and still make it look like nothing is the matter; there is also too much pressure in these last days that will cause partners to fail to show love, there is a lot of room for infidelity and falling off Faith also because the enemy has brought close to us (especially in the Church), what looks like the real thing, yet they are just strategies of the enemy. Not many are walking in The Spirit to be able to know the enemy when he strikes. Statements of the devil have not changed....
"...did God really say..."
So some engage in extra marital sex because..did God really say one sexual partner when some single sister out there seems sexually starved and is running around in the name of counselling, yet a plan of the devil to bring many down:
Some Church folk are too too busy at Church 'tending flock' leaving a partner home for whatever reason. They don't even know when they lost their spouse to a faithful single neighbor. Watch out!
Again the fiundations on which some marriages are built are not strong at all. So when challenges come, couples easily just fall off.
Another evil in the Body of Christ is the rate at which divorce in the Church is happening caused by trivial matters, and so much justification is given for it for it😂.
Most believers/clergy are now looking for a morden stylish partners they feel what they have by comparison doesn't go with modern trends!
If we CAN'T live by the Holy Ghost, by The Standard of God's Word, we shall be like Sodom, and we shall be like Gomora...

I am speaking to me as well.

Take care in Faith.

Does anyone here still buy music albums or are you all about the singles?

I think the thing with singles is that each stands on their own merit. If you really like a song, you'd buy it. But if you like a band or singer and it doesnt matter what they sing, you'd buy their album.

?!

There are a lot of bullying sports dads out there though and stage mothers. Its a lot of pressure to be a child these days if your parent is dependent on you making the big leagues.

Hun for somebody to tell you not to get married already got a negative mind set. I wouldn't even waste my time being around anybody like that dear. Try being around positive married couples. Your outlook on marriage will be different dear. God bless

I remember in college, where someone gave me a Christian Bible Tract, and it talked about how you always want more than you have. It talked about how when your were kid, you wish you were older. Than when your older, you wish you had more money. After words, you wanted to get married. Finally, after your married with kids, and have everything you thought you wanted, you still are wondering what your missing. It was a great Bible Tract and it's teaching stuck with me through the years.

I'm sure many people wish they were younger, after their kids moved out, and started their own life. An Irish quote that I recently heard went something like this, don't fret getting old, since many people didn't have this opportunity.

I used to buy albums on CD; but in the iPod/mp3 player age, singles are far more practical.


The thing is I don't have a negative outlook on marriage- it's that so many married people do. And if they don't have a negative outlook, it's some delusion of grandeur. Being single with contentment, I'm not trapped in either of those things. The point of the thread isn't to degrade marriage; but it's to shed a light on the realities of marriage, so that we don't have pathetic sad-singles waiting for their life to finally arrive on that day they finally get married: because that's not how it works. That's a delusion of the enemy.

Strangely... just yesterday I read an article about how music lovers should go back to listening to CDs, for precisely the OPPOSITE reason. The author said we should listen to whole albums, which are dirt cheap now on CDs, because it makes us listen to songs we would auto-skip on Spotify or Pandora, and we wind up listening to songs we initially don't like as much but sometimes wind up becoming our favorite songs.

Mind you, I'm not saying either you or the author of that article is right. Music is something to enjoy, and you should enjoy it the way you find enjoyable.