Savvy, Sassy, and Single

We've gotten some emails from dear, sweet single ladies whose hearts just ache. They ache to be chosen, to be loved, to feel like they fit in with life in general...and you know what? I get it.

I had my first crush at age four...on my very handsome (no, really! He was!) and very in-high-school neighbor. This year marks 30 years since that crush. He's still very handsome...but he's also not the one God planned for me. That doesn't mean I have lost the desire to one day be married. It just means the journey from my creation to the creation of my marriage is much longer than I ever thought it would be from that four-year-old-isn't-that-neighbor-dreamy perspective!

Michelle McKinney Hammond gets that. She's in her 50's and while she's never been married, she's also never let that society-imposed stigma keep her from being savvy, sassy, and simply delightful.

I had the privilege of hearing her speak last year at the Extraordinary Women conference here in Fort Wayne, and I loved her words, her wisdom, her humor, and her sweet spirit. (Took this picture from my perch...)

She has a couple of new books: A Woman's Gotta Do What a Woman's Gotta Do (a study of the ever-daunting Proverbs 31 woman) and How to Be Happy Where You Are (a study of contentment based on the biblical account of the Shunamite woman). And this morning I wished I would have been multi-tasking-talented enough to interview AND engineer AND absorb every word AND journal her great quotes as she spoke with Lynne and me. I'm going to have to go back and listen to the show in full to write in my journal some of the nuggets of wisdom.

The bottom line is...the whole hurt of singleness is a detail. The desire (or sometimes flat out ache) I have to be married and share life with a husband is the same desire (or flat out ache) some women have to be able to carry a child...or adopt...or go a full day without debilitating pain...or accomplish a lifelong dream...or...or...or...

If you're aching for fulfillment of a dream and a deep heart desire...perhaps one you've had since age four...check out her interview with Lynne and me today and let your heart be encouraged by her words.

And to get you started, a few of my favorite nuggets from How to Be Happy Where You Are

* "In God's economy of time, a day is as a thousand, and He has all the time in the world to work out His purposes in us and through us."

* "God also waits to see if the thing you desire will become a god to you or if He will remain the God in your life."

* "There comes a time when we have to decide we mean business with God. When we take hold of the altar and refuse to let go."

* "We have no idea what is going on in the realm of the principalities that war against God's plan for us."

Michelle, thanks for sharing your heart with us! And thanks for letting the Lord speak through you to encourage hurting hearts.