Photo by Nicole Tarpoff
I was a single mom for 17 years. Many of those years I longed to meet a wonderful man and remarry. I was told that my children needed a father, and I truly wanted a good father for them. I was so, so lonely. Life was hard, raising children alone and working long hours to support our family. But I believed that God had a plan for our family and continued to pray each night for God to bring the right man at the right time for me and my children. Night after night, year after year, I prayed this prayer. I waited—sometimes patiently, sometimes not so patiently. While I waited, I tried to grow and learn and become a better person. I practiced gratitude even when life was hard, and eventually gratitude came much easier.
But as I got older and my last child approached high school graduation, I was pretty sure that a husband and father was not in God’s plan for our family. Strangely, though, I was at peace with this realization. Over the years I head learned to use my time alone to deepen my relationship with God, and I trusted wholeheartedly that I was indeed NOT alone. I felt God’s presence with me. I knew that I could be happy with or without a husband and began looking for a few acres in the country where I could build a small cottage and have a flower garden after my son moved away to college.
But then a man who had been sitting behind me at church for many months, began to talk to me. He walked me to my car—which, in the parking lot full of hundreds of cars, was parked right next to his car! Eventually, he ask me to join him for dinner. Six months later, we were married in a small ceremony in the church where we met.
He has been the answer to my nightly prayer and so much more. I am so thankful for the husband and father that God provided at just the right time. God used my years of singleness to bring me closer to Him and to grow my faith. It was hard, but I don’t believe I would have ever developed the gratitude and deep relationship I have with God now if I had a married earlier. My years alone as a single mom forced a dependence on God that resulted in my KNOWING that God is with me and that God listens, loves, and responds in just the right way, at just the right time!
A Million God Stories is a Christ-centered ministry which offers a platform for Christians from all streams of Christian faith to give praise for how God has worked in their lives. Christ heals in infinitely creative ways and we acknowledge that His way of helping may differ from person to person.
