Pride and your all-consuming desire to be married with kids
Matthew 18 8-9: 8 If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire.
Single girl or woman: Are you mad at God because you’re over 30, 35, 40, 55 and you’re still not married? No kids? Awwww… It’s so sad. Do you have *everything else* — the faith, the church membership, perfect tithing and volunteering record, Ivy League degrees, the cars, the condo/townhouse, the looks. All that’s missing is: the husband to match! And then you’d be, like, complete. A completely awesome christian woman like the one you must have seen in a magazine or on some T.V. show. Why can’t God just make it happen? Doesn’t He love you? Waaah. Waaaah.
Oh, really? Is that really all that’s missing? Okay, Let’s see what could be wrong here. What about your heart? A faithful and loving heart for the one who gave *it all* to you? I know, I know. Of course you love Him. But how much, my friend? More than the stuff? The accolades? And we know you get it all the time. Everyone tells you that you’re awesome — your friends, family, the media. Especially your pastor who just loves the 10% of your megabucks salary that pays his mortgage. (Oooops, sorry, his house is paid for by his book royalties.) You’re awesome because you’ve overcome and made something of yourself in this world, dear. A credit to your gender and/or your race. *Insert worldly applause here* Hmm….
But are you a credit to Him? Where exactly do you loyalties lie — to Him and his divine will for you or to the world and its will to send you straight to hell?
Let me ask you, my friend: If God gave you the perfect matching husband today, would you glorify Him? Would you finally quit your whining and give Him the praise He is due? Really? But then, you’d want more, right? You can’t have the perfect husband without some perfect kids. That’s, like, crazy! (Of course, you think, I most certainly would continue to love God with all my heart, soul and mind. Sorry, to burst your bubble, chica, but if you’re aching this much for a husband then you most likely won’t. The fact that singleness causes you so much distress now is evidence of your anemic love for Christ and your unwillingness to trust in the rest He freely gives those who labor and are heavy-laden.)
So what would you really do? If He gave you the husband and kids you want so badly could that then be enough? Could you then give up the expensive lifestyle to stay home (or work less) and raise the kids to love, honor and obey Him? Or would you just continue your campaign of obtaining self-glorification from the world? Look at me! I have *it all*! The education, the money, the husband, the kids (in expensive private school, soccer, violin lessons, etc.)! And I worked real hard to get it, too! Look at me and all I’ve accomplished — ahem, I mean, how God has blessed me!!
Sister, do you now get what Matthew 18: 8-9 is saying? Pride is a sin, a stinking offense to God. Even pride in good things, like love, family, education, physical beauty, etc. Better to limp into the kingdom a creaky, childless, dried-up old maid than to do the electric slide into hell all puffed up on destructive, worldly accolades.
Not my will but THINE be done. Amen.
Philippians 3: 7-10: But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
