Wednesday 1 on 1

This month I had the opportunity to talk with a wonderful new friend Annie Downs. Annie is a great writer with her own blog, annieblogs.com. She has written several Bible Studies and articles and is on her way to getting her first book published. She is also passionate about seeing young adults find true value in God and His love for them. She weaves personal stories, humor and scripture and invites her readers to experience a fulfilled life with a living God who loves deeply. And she is our guest this month.

 

 
Annie, it has been wonderful to meet you and spend time getting to know you. You shared with me such a beautiful story of your heart and your singleness. Would you share with our readers some of this journey of singleness that you’ve gone through?

  Totally.  So, I’m 28 years old and single.  REALLY single.  As in, I’ve never even had a boyfriend. [Except for this dude Nathan in 6th grade.  But his mom made him break up with me because I prank called his house.  So the scars from that run deep, as you can imagine.  Through high school and college, I really considered my singleness a curse- why did no one want to date me?  Was I too ugly?  Too fat?  Super boring? Were my jokes not funny?  What was the problem with me? I was convinced that there was a “problem” and that problem was “me”.

The Lord, a Christian counselor, and some great friends eventually walked me through a process of healing towards the end of college- seeing myself the way God sees me.  Tearing down the lies that I heard in my head.  Learning to love all that He has made.  And believing that His promises for me are true and good. 

All the while, I continued to pray for my husband.  And I still do on a daily basis. That has been a constant throughout my adult life- believing that God knows my desires and will give me the desires of my heart (Ps. 37:4) and praying with confidence. So even though there has been zero change in my relationship status, I am sure of what God is going to do for me.  I don’t always totally love His timing, but I love Him and trust Him.  So I pitch a “I’m-sick-of-being-single” fit every now and again to the Lord, then I move on, knowing that He loves my honesty and knows that above all else, I want His best. Every day is different, some are great and some are completely pitiful, but the longer I know the Lord, the more I know that He is going to work things out for my good and His glory [not in that order].

Do I think everyone should stay single until they meet their husband?  No. It is more holy?  Not necessarily. I think God writes an individual story for each of us.  For some reason, my story just doesn’t involve much dating.  Do I know the end of the story?  Nope.  I just know the beginning to here, but I love the story so far.

I see wonderful pictures of you often on my Facebook page. You really enjoy life. What do you find most rewarding about being single?

Oh Facebook, how I love thee. Life is so fun, and I don’t take for granted that God has blessed me a lot.

I think the most rewarding part of being single is that I have a lot of freedom. I don’t think that being married brings you down [trust me- I WANT to be married!], but I just still enjoy the fact that I can grab a burrito from the local burrito place, take it home, and watch “Reba” without worrying about feeding anyone else.   I can hang out with my girlfriends, cook without using any peppers, and leave socks on the floor if I so desire.  I know it won’t be like this forever, so I enjoy the freedom of this time in my life.

 

Comments

[Kristin]

Wow, I'm 38 and single. "REALLY" single and feel like I could have written that post above! I spent most of fall semester in a place of guilt over the death of my dream of being a wife and mother at a young age mixed with a current life full of contentment. A friend graciously reminded me that Paul always had places he wanted to go the Lord didn't allow YET was fully content. What a weight off my shoulders! I'm not sure why I didn't see that in the Word but am grateful the Lord has me in community and a dear sister could point that out to me.

[Denise]

So glad this interview helped. Annie is an amazing woman of God!
Take Care
Denise

[Allie]

I completely relate and I absolutley applaud Annie's ability to be single with dignity. I'm currently 30 and single; in fact, I spent my entire 20s single. If only I could go back, I would shake my 21 year old self and force her to stop obsessing over feeling unwanted and make her take bigger educational and career risks.

I really enjoyed this interview-whoever finds Annie will be very blessed by her humor and honesty.

[chat rooms]

Thanks for your marvelous posting! I truly enjoyed reading it, you're a great author.I will remember to bookmark your blog and definitely will come back from now on. I want to encourage you to definitely continue your great writing, have a nice day!