If you can't submit as a wife, submit to be a nurse

"A woman of seven-and-twenty," said Marianne, after pausing a moment, "can never hope to feel or inspire affection again, and if her home be uncomfortable, or her fortune small, I can suppose that she might bring herself to submit to the office of a nurse, for the sake of the provision and security of wife." 

~Marianne Dashwood, Sense and Sensibility

Before you yell at me about writing in my book (and messily, at that) please note that this is a $5 B&N copy, of which something has been spilled on.  A family library classic it is not.  I just might write another post about some of the comments in my margins.

Yes, I know that this book is from a different era.

Yes, I know that Marianne Dashwood is a ridiculous teenager.

Yes, I know that Jane Austen was making social commentary, not stipulating cultural truths.

But, as a twenty-six year old, I take offense.  Apparently, by my next birthday, I can expect to "never hope to feel or inspire affection."  True?  Not so much.  However, it does hit a soft spot in many a single girl's heart.  

I never aspired to be a career woman.

I never aspired to plan a life for only one.

I never aspired to still be waiting.

While I admit that it is hard to now have more married friends than single friends, to have to constantly answer questions about my singleness, and to hear comments like, "You need to get a move on that!", I know that this is a season that I need to live out to the fullest.

I'll spare you the multiple platitudes that I have heard about singleness, and stick to one truth: God's ways are far better than ours.  I would not for one moment presume to think that I could plan, organize, or design better than Him, so why do I fight to plan, organize, and design my own life?  He is the Author of it, after all.

So I will wait.  And if I am still waiting on my 27th birthday, I will meet it with joy, knowing that the path laid before me will be ordained by a Creator who loves me and will never ask me to settle for something less than His plan.

Take that, Marianne.

And, in closing, I only hope that I am as happy as the Palmers.

"Many, Lord my God, are the wonders you have done, the things you planned for us. None can compare with you; were I to speak and tell of your deeds, they would be too many to declare." ~Psalm 40:5

~Katie