On Being Engaged...

Many of you single people out there see getting engaged as something that really will happen in your life, and can't wait for it to. But let me say this; as the day approaches, the older you are, the more... different being engaged is.

All of my life I was "that guy" who was everyone's third-, fifth- (any odd number-) wheel. I didn't mind, and neither did my friends. They just thought of me as the single guy who's still looking for that soul mate, especially as ALL of my best friends from Elementary School through Graduate school have gotten married (well not all of them from grad school because... well, seminary is a lonely place) and yet here I am still single at 27 years old. I really had become used to this lifestyle, even though I hadn't accepted the idea that I may never get married. And then it happened (read blog post below).

Actually, this all started when I was 25 and still in seminary, and I met Jeannine through our blogs. Maybe the blog world is the next online dating service? Anyway, things have led to this, and through all that I've been through in the past couple years, Jeannine has been there for me and encouraged me, and we've really grown together. I am truly in love and happy to be engaged, and although I can see all the ways that I disappointed myself with my imperfections on the day I proposed to her, I know that one way that I've really "appointed" myself (hmm... what's the opposite of "disappoint?")... I guess what I'm trying to say is that though I disappointed myself with the nervously-stuttered proposal, the end result is the greatest accomplishment that I could ever hope to achieve - finding the person with whom I will spend the rest of my life. And even that, I didn't do, but I have to thank God for doing because in the great big world of the internet, there's such a small chance that our blogs would cross paths without Divine intervention.

So if you're single and believe God has someone out there that He will lead you to one day, don't give up hope. Try starting a blog! On the other hand, enjoy being single, because although married people don't have to deal with the loneliness single people deal with, they also don't network NEARLY as well as singles do. At least that's the biggest complaint that I've heard from married people - single people spend a lot of time with a lot of different people, while married people spend all their time with themselves & their kids.