I want to tell you a beginning of a love story. You see, it’s only a beginning of a love story because it is still being written. That is one of the cool things about this love story, it’s happening in real-time. Another cool thing about it is that I’m in it, along with someone I dearly love. I am not the protagonist in this beginning of a love story, though. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

   This beginning of a love story actually began, believe it or not, with this very magazine. There was an issue printed in the fall of 2002, that had an article written by a person who, it turns out, lives all of a mile or two from some cousins of mine. (It was a really good article, too). Now these cousins, although they live a thousand miles away, are some of my best friends, and I like to visit them now and again. So, on a trip to their house, shortly after the aforementioned article was printed, I got in touch with, and met, the author. It was a good visit, and so the next Sunday some of my cousins and I went to the author’s church. Well, my trip ended and I went home, but my cousins continued attending the church we had visited and making friends there. They also went to a Bible study with other young people from the church. Pretty soon they were getting popular.

   By the time you read this, it will have been a full year since my visit to my cousins’. And, it will have been a full two months since a young man from the Bible study began courting one of my cousins, Charity. Charity, who is my age (give or take four days), is my best friend. I couldn’t be more happy for her. And I get no end of joy from the thought that her courtship is directly related to me and something I did. If not for my visit, this beginning of a love story might not have happened, and would definitely be very different from what it is.

   But, I’m not the hero of this story. It is a guy named Adam. And while he is trying to win the heart of Charity, I’m trying to keep my heart from being jealous. But the truth is, I don’t know any young ladies that I would pursue a relationship with right now, and I’m not sure that I should be trying to find one right now. But, Oh! How I want to!

   I’m at that age that, five years ago, I considered ancient. I’m not seventeen anymore, either. I’m at the point that, if the right girl came along, I could do something about it. The form of my waiting has changed.

   No longer am I a boy waiting to grow ‘old enough’. I am a young man, seeking to grow in Godliness, and to serve God as best I can, until I find someone to spend the rest of my life with. In other words, I’m single, ancient, and trying to be content that way.

   And that is how a lot of us are. We try to bide our time between high-school and courtship diligently. Meanwhile our friends are courting and getting married by the dozen. And we try to be content. We read our articles on singleness, we write our articles on singleness, and we try not to focus on it. I wonder if we aren’t missing the point. We talk about contentment like a pacifier, a fix to get us through.

   I think, though, that the Biblical model differs from our model of contentment. Biblical contentment is accompanied, without fail, with thankfulness. To be content with our singleness is not just to abide it, not only to be satisfied with it, but to be thankful; honestly and sincerely grateful to be single. How many of us can say, in all seriousness, that we are, "Single and lovin’ it"?

   I don’t mean that we can’t look forward to marriage. But at the same time, singleness isn’t just a trial to get through. Granted, there are trials that come with singleness. I can attest to that as well as anyone. But singleness is not the trial, and our goal should not be to ‘get through’ singleness. Our goal should be to serve God diligently, through the hard times and trials, through singleness and marriage.

   Every season of life is a gift from God, to be used for His glory. Even the season of singleness. And that is reason for thankfulness, leading to contentment.