My Story: Lauren McCoy

A few summers ago, I spent some time in Spain with a great missionary friend of mine who encouraged me to start praying verses over different areas of my life. This was a game changer for me. I started searching Scripture for purposeful verses to pray over every area of my life - teaching (I'm a high school ESL teacher), finances (any other Dave Ramsey fans out there?) spiritual walk (I'm unfinished and daily being sanctified), fitness (Beachbody and spin class lover), eating (vegetarian), and my singleness. Every morning, I pray these verses over my life. It fills each day with purpose and direction.

For singleness, I prayed, "Lord, as an unmarried women help me to be concerned about the things of the Lord, so that I may be holy both in body and in spirit" (1 Corinthians 7:34b). If you look at the passage, Paul is talking about the blessings of being single (is that an oxymoron?). A single man or woman has the advantage of being free from the divided interests of serving the Lord and taking care of a spouse or children; singles can focus on serving the Lord. Paul is not saying that singleness is better or worse than marriage; they both have their purposes for glorifying God. Rather, he is sharing how awesome it is to be able to serve the Lord during a season of singleness. So I took the verse from this passage and pray it every day so that I would remember my purpose in this season of singleness: being concerned about Jesus and His kingdom and being holy or set apart in my body and in my spirit.

As I started praying over my singleness each day and started talking with other single women in my life, I became aware of the pervasive lies that surround us today. The world of "All The Single Ladies" encourages us to use this season as a time to live it up and fulfill all our desires. This is a lie as we are called to "take up our cross daily" and live a life of humility and surrender to our sweet Jesus. Unfortunately, our church culture often has us believing that we are in a waiting period for our future husband and that right now is the time to be "working on ourselves" in order to attract the right type of guy; we spiritually "arrive" when we are married. This is a big fat lie. Honey, sanctification is not a means for a man; becoming more like Christ is a means to glorify God.

Maybe you just got out of a relationship and feel as if you need direction in your life. Perhaps you always thought you'd be married and God clearly doesn't have that for you right now. Maybe you feel lost as everyone around you seems to be married and having children. Or perhaps you are married and know a single woman that you want to encourage. Regardless of where you are or how long you stay - please join me along my journey of Singled Out singleness for Him during this season of my life!