\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n God gave this section of the book to me.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t be more sure.\u00a0 Some of the words the authors use are the exact same ones I said to my friend just two days ago.\u00a0 I struggle with contentment.\u00a0 It is an area where I think, \u201cI got this!\u201d just to stumble when an email isn\u2019t returned or I lay alone in bed crying a few days or weeks later.\u00a0 So many times I think I have surrendered this issue to Him.\u00a0 Then I feel like I failure when I find myself doing things that take me out of God\u2019s will regarding being single.<\/p>\n Can anyone relate?\u00a0 I love the example they use to define suffering: \u201cHaving what you do not want (singleness), and wanting what you do not have (a husband).\u201d\u00a0 Now I know and understand that not everyone feels that suffering, but for those that do, how do you cope with such a longing?\u00a0 If you continue to focus on what you do not have, you will always feel that loss and discontentment.\u00a0 We need to start putting our focus on God and all that we DO have.\u00a0 Something jumped off the page and practically knocked me over the head when I read it: If you are presently discontent as a single woman, you can count on being dissatisfied as a married woman in the future.<\/i> You know what?\u00a0 Life is never on our terms, God\u2019s plans will always be hard to understand, and we cannot get caught up in the downward spiral of negativity and \u201cnot haves\u201d no matter what stage we are in life.\u00a0 Starting to renew and transform our minds to this fact are the beginning stages of finding contentment in the Lord and His plans.\u00a0 The verse that immediately came to mind was Romans 8:28.\u00a0 I love the way The Message states it: That\u2019s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.<\/i>\u00a0 If we trust in that, contentment comes a lot easier.<\/p>\n Ruth had every reason to feel discontentment.\u00a0 Instead of wallowing in her circumstances and focusing on the loss of her husband and leaving her people, she chose to cling to the God whom she trusted despite everything that had happened.\u00a0 In following God\u2019s leading and working in the fields every day, Boaz was brought to her.\u00a0 Even in this situation, with Boaz seemingly ready to \u201cdo all Ruth asks\u201d, Naomi cautions Ruth to wait and see how everything actually turns out.\u00a0 Instead of getting caught up in all the excitement she is asked to sit back and wait and see what Boaz actually does.\u00a0 Wouldn\u2019t that be hard to do?\u00a0 God calls us to wait often.\u00a0 Most of the time we don\u2019t know why, but we need to place our trust in Him fully and completely and believe that it will be worked into something good.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 Be content ladies.\u00a0 Focus on the good.\u00a0 Be grateful.\u00a0 The \u201ctorture\u201d will lessen and the waiting won\u2019t seem so bad.<\/p>\n LET\u2019S PRAY<\/strong><\/p>\n Father God, you love each and every woman reading these words.\u00a0 You have a plan for each of us.\u00a0 Sometimes it is hard not knowing what that plan is, but I pray today that we remember your faithfulness rather than focusing on what we don\u2019t have.\u00a0 You have provided for us, you have gifted us, and that is where we want to fixate.\u00a0 Please help renew our minds so that the waiting and our circumstances are not what we focus each day, but all the blessings that you have given us that day.\u00a0 Thank you for your never ending care.<\/p>\n YOUR ASSIGNMENT<\/strong><\/p>\n Today I want you to list 5 blessings you are grateful for.\u00a0 If you can relate them to your single life, even better!\u00a0 We have to remember that this season in life is not all misery and negativity; God gives us many gifts through our single life, things that not everyone else can necessarily experience at other stages of life.<\/p>\n ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<\/p>\n For the \u201cLady in Waiting\u201d Bible Study, you will need the book, your Bible, pen or pencil, a highlighter and a quiet place. You can order the book right through our website by clicking the \u201csign-up here\u201d button at the top of our webpage; which is also where you can sign up to participate in this awesome bible study!<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 God gave this section of the book to me.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t be more sure.\u00a0 Some of the words the authors use are the exact same ones I said to my friend just two days ago.\u00a0 I struggle with contentment.\u00a0 It is an area where I think, \u201cI got this!\u201d just to stumble when an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[20],"tags":[144,147,293,365,425,436,545,593,686,723,9297,968],"class_list":["post-4180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-singles","tag-bible","tag-bible-study","tag-debby-jones","tag-faith","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-god","tag-jackie-kendall","tag-lady-in-waiting","tag-michelle-graziano","tag-online-bible-studies","tag-singles","tag-singles-bible-study","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-15q","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4180"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8336,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4180\/revisions\/8336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}