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I spent my young life desperate for the day I could be married. The older women in my small church even prayed for me over it. I proposed twice and was turned down both times.

I was always a “too”. I was “too this” or “too that”. I was never who they wanted. Some nights I cried alone.

I’m almost 60 now and still a bachelor. It has some advantages. I never have to clear my decisions with anyone. I can spend all day watching football if I so choose. The bathroom is always available. I can walk throughout the apartment naked in the hot summer without any eyes casting judgement.

At this point, I don’t see what any woman would want in me to get married for it. Instead I ask the Lord whom I might receive as a companion in Heaven. Perhaps a soul who died as a child before she was old enough to wed. Maybe someone whose body was so deformed or wracked with disease that no man would want her but now, in Heaven, is perfect in her new body. Maybe someone I was in love with for a time but realized later she made the wrong decision leaving and always wondered what it might have been like if she had it to do over.

I can’t tell you. I know three things will be true. Jesus says in Heaven we will not marry or be given into marriage. Those who did marry have a forever bond. Oh, for a companion to love that well, even without a ring.

I know our joy in Christ will be complete. Our joy will be so full that we won’t dwell on old failures from our past but exist in the sweet joy of our walk with Jesus. And yet, surely, there will also be fellowship with other humans and perhaps even other Heavenly creatures. Perhaps companions will be given to those who wept on earth for one never received.

But even if my musings are far from the actual reality of what Heaven will offer, that in Christ, it will be sufficient just as each day today is sufficient. I won’t mourn over what I don’t have but look forward to what is coming that is promised to be so much better.

That makes singleness bearable. At least, for me.

My brother was single well into his forties though he did have a female companion who accompanied him for dinners etc. for most of that time.

They were great friends but never romantic with one another....he decided not to pursue that as he enjoyed and valued her company so much.

A medical emergency happened to him and from that his companion was shaken over the possiblity of loosing Him...she said it was like the Lord opened her heart and all this love for my brother flowed in.

She poured her heart out in a letter to him, which he assumed was her standard thank you card.....reading it as he was driving out of town. ...He was soooo stunned he had to get off the road to see more clearly and realize the words he had never expected to hear were there in front of him......I love when they share this story and never tire hearing it.

I was LOLROTF when you mentioned... "advantages"..... though I'm a gal I know exactly what your speaking of though from a gals point of view!.... I've been single longer than I was married and know the difference quite well. For me this works better I think.

I have a brother who’s a lifelong bachelor in his 40’s. He’s had many girlfriends, but he’s never settled down. He’s happy, though, probably much happier than his married friends, all of whom cheat.

It’s funny how, mostly for men, the grass is always greener... Many married men seem to wish they were single. Some singles wish they were married. (I’m not a guy myself. Just basing that observation on what men have told me.)

OrangeHoof, please don’t give up on life.

You will find someone. My grandfather remarried after his wife (my grandmother) died. My step-grandmother was a devout Catholic and was 70 when she married my grandfather. It was her first marriage, and he joined her in the Catholic faith.

Just make up a great t-shirt with your awesome tagline...and you are bound to make people laugh (I hope; it probably depends on where you live! i.e., hope you’re not surrounded by libs!)

Go to some conservative gathering with a bunch of those t-shirts, or put the slogan on coffee mugs and sell them at a mall, all with Christmas colors (better hurry!) and who knows?! Clarence might just help you out...... :)

Seriously, everyone... at the loneliest point in my life, I saw “It’s a Wonderful Life” for the first time... I have watched it every year since.

We all have to have faith.

Take care, everyone... Don’t give up!

And please, let us know how it goes, OrangeHoof! :)

I hope you find joy whether alone or with the person willing to be your best friend and who will love you as Christ loves us, as we are.

I have trust issues and am afraid of my over reactions which have been consistent so I will just trust the One I have always trusted.

My place of joy is thinking about when Christ rules the world. I had a large family as a kid and miss hearing kids play in the street. When I lived in old Navy housing I would sit on the back steps and imagine all the kids who used to play in the courtyard.