Read the Directions

Laying in bed this morning, I thought to myself, "Mmmm, I think I want pancakes this morning. Yum!" So I rolled out of bed and trotted into the kitchen, pulling out all the ingredients needed. I found I only had enough mix to make three pancakes, which was fine because that's all I would eat anyway with the maple syrup in the cabinent. There was just enough.

I flipped the pancakes onto my round, white correl plate and poured the maple syrup on. "Oh, no! Yuck," I blurted out. Onto my fresh piping, hot pancakes came a thin film of greenish, gray mold with the Vermont Maple Syrup. So much for pancakes. Luckily, it did not get over all of them and I was able to salvage part of my freshly made breakfast. Strawberry preserves would have to do instead. I picked up the bottle of syrup and looked on the back. In fine print it read, "Refrigerate after opening." I never thought to put it in the fridge. I just figured it would be fine like the syrup you find in the pitchers at IHOP. The obvious lesson here was to read the directions.

Which brings me to a new opportunity I've been presented with. An opportunity to pursue getting to know someone beyond casual friendship. To be more direct, it's a guy. Yes, a guy I was introduced to by a dear friend last year sometime. What will come of it? I don't know and I am not sure what I want to come of it just yet.

As the years have gone by and I've gotten older, I began to wonder more recently if I was just meant to be single and that was it. Not that I didn't want to meet someone or have a family, but for so long and after so many disappointments, one can't help but think, "Perhaps this is just the way it's supposed to be." In addition, I've felt a leading towards some type of mission work for quite sometime now. I remember reading something from Elisabeth Elliot about how some are meant to walk a life fully devoted to God, in deeper relationship with Him, so that others in the body of Christ may benefit. Although she has been widowed twice and married three times, Elisabeth has spent most of her adult life as a single. She has served as a missionary, author, and teacher. However, in her book, Let Me Be a Woman, she expressed to her daughter that one of her greatest joys and fulfillment as a woman, has come through being a wife and mother.

It is clear to me, that both marriage and singleness are gifts given to different people at different times. After meeting the yucky film of mold from the Vermont Maple Syrup bottle this morning, I was reminded to check the ingredients and follow directions even more so. I know, far too many marriages that have ended in divorce these days. Not to mention, the relationships that don't result in marriage, but still cause much heartache for those involved. Why? As my pastor from many years ago stated,"They don't follow the Book!"

Matthew 19:5-6 reads, "..'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate." Most truly, it was never God's heart for divorce to enter the picture.

I do not know where this opportunity will take me. I have no doubt that he and I were meant to meet and develop a friendship. Time and God will both tell where things will lead. Until then, I am going to begin a more in depth study of what the Good Book says about relationships, singleness, and marriage as I prayerfully consider what to do.