Next year, it could all be different

A testimony to encourage you this holiday season

Seek in Faith features encouraging notes for Christian singles on navigating singleness, dating and building a strong foundation for marriage.

Thanksgiving 2020, my family rented a cabin at the lake. My little sister and her husband got there late since they were driving down from Iowa. Laying in bed, I heard my sister share the news with my parents that she was pregnant, and as I processed their news in the dark of my room, I bawled my eyes out.

Because it felt like everyone was moving on without me. Six of my younger siblings got married before me. They were starting their families and it felt like the Lord had passed me by. At 29, many people I knew had written me off, figuring I’d never get married.

The next morning, I pretended to be surprised when I heard the news. I put a smile on my face and pretended my heart wasn’t breaking inside. I was happy for my sister but my heart also hurt for myself and the continued absence of the marriage and family I had been praying for year after year.

I remember sitting on the back patio overlooking the lake that day and reading about the woman with the flow of blood. And my heart prayed for faith to reach out to Him.

As I journaled out my prayers, my Bible open next to me, the date of May 22, 2021 came to mind. I felt a push to tell my family I’d be getting married next May. Which was wild because it was six months away and I had zero prospects.

Hesitantly, I told my family that night. Some of them laughed; others just smiled and nodded.

I wanted to take it back, because what if I was just making things up out of desperation?

Four days later, a handsome cowboy replied to one of my stories on Instagram.

A month later, we went on our first date.

Two months later, he proposed.

We got married on May 16, 2021.

Turns out, if we didn’t want to wait a year or two to get married, our only options for local venues within a year were May 16 or Father’s Day in June and since my little sister was due to have her baby at the end of May, we went with the earlier date hoping that baby wouldn’t come early and she’d make it to our wedding. I also didn’t tell Daniel about the significance of the May wedding date until after we booked the venue.

The following Thanksgiving, it was my husband and I sharing the news that we were expecting a baby.

A lot can happen in a year, friend. I know that the holidays can be difficult when it feels like you're the only one not part of a couple or without a family to call your own.

Two weeks before all this unfolded, I felt God calling me to praise Him. "I know how to ask, but I don't know how to praise you and thank you for something that I still don't have or even know if / when it will come to be," I wrote in my prayer journal.

So, when I couldn't find my own words, I would write out Psalms and passages from the Bible about God's faithfulness and His character of doing good for those who trust in Him. The words from those Psalms became my prayer of praise.

I prayed as if it was already done. I'd done that before, but this time, I did my best to believe it too. And when I couldn't, I asked Him to teach me to live a life of worship - to praise Him for today's blessings in the season I was in and for what he was preparing for me in the future.

I heard a testimony on a podcast about a woman who had a dream of living on a homestead and everything changed for her when her prayers shifted from asking to thanking. She began to thank God for the property He had set aside for their family. As if it was a done deal and it was only a matter of timing. That unlocked what their family was praying for. Because gratitude makes what we have enough, even if it’s not where we want to be.

God is worthy of our praise, even when the answers we seek from Him are not what we want them to be.

Praise Him for where you are and for what you're asking Him for. Remind yourself of who You're praying to.

Because that's what changes everything. The bleeding woman's faith was in who she believed Jesus was and what He could do. She reached out believing He was able to give her the thing she had been spent years searching for but instead getting rejection after rejection, empty promise after empty promise.

Our praise says that we believe He is able. That He will do it. Our praise gives Him honor and reminds us to whom we offer our prayers to and who is at work in response.

Next holiday season, it could all be different. But even it not, He is still good 🤎