Skip to main content

4 Ways to Help Single People

It is very likely that not all single people will completely agree with the list I'm about to share with you, because no two people are alike, but I've heard similar things from single people that I follow online and think it will be helpful to share these. If nothing else, let this post lead you to have conversations with the single people in your life and find out what would be helpful to them. 

1. Hug Them

I'll admit, I'm not much of a hugger, but a few months ago another woman I follow recommended to her audience that they begin hugging their single friends and I've been thinking about it since. Now (due to a change in my life) I'm seeing certain friends more often than I had been, and I am also receiving more hugs; this is good for me. In particular, it is good for me that one of my guy friends often gives me a hug when I see him. I don't mean that in a sensual sense, I mean it in a brotherly sense. The quick hug he offers tells me that I am seen, I am loved, I am cherished, and I am protected. For single people, particularly single people who live away from their biological families, many days and weeks can pass before they receive any physical affection. Jesus was touching people all the time, Paul told us to greet each other with a holy kiss, and I think it's because something is communicated via physical touch that cannot be communicated in other ways. Don't be awkward about it, just give a quick hug. 

2. Be Available to Listen 

C.S. Lewis said that Christians on earth are behind Enemy lines (my paraphrase), which I think is particularly felt in the workplace. Now, married Christians can feel the heat of wickedness in the workplace and then return home to a Christian spouse, they can encourage and support each other, but single people don't have that. I am blessed to have a friend who I can text after every work shift if I need to and she will listen and respond. This is a huge gift to me.

3. Invite Them 

This runs in the same vain as #2. Not only do single Christians need brothers and sisters to listen to them, they also need brothers and sisters to be with them. When work life is not balanced with family life (because there is no family) it can appear that work is everything. Sometimes we need the reminder to look up and realize that there is more to life than spreadsheets and water-cooler drama and deadlines, there are children's books and homemade meals and other people living other lives but still doing Kingdom work. Particularly on Sundays, it is a gift to be invited into a different home. 

4. Pray for Them 

Pray that we would grow in godliness and in our walk with the Lord. Pray that we would be brave and wise and kind witnesses to this lost and dying world. Pray we would have joy and contentment that the Name of the Lord would not be blasphemed. 


What I'm Reading 

    • The Second Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangerine Jr. You can guess how much I liked the first book since I'm reading the second book.
    • JC Ryle's commentary on Mark
    • The Gentlewoman's Choice by George MacDonald 
    • Charles Spurgeon by Kathy Triggs

What I'm Enjoying 

    • I moved my fish to the self above the kitchen sink
    • Spinach Dip (I'll share the recipe below) 
    • Playing the piano. 
    • Going out for breakfast with friends 
Spinach Dip
1 package of cream cheese 
1/2 C. Mayo
1 1/2 C. Spinach 
1/4 C. bacon bits
2 green onion
1/2 C. grated cheese 
1/4 C. Parmesan Cheese
Mix everything together and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What Is Your Purpose?

 A couple weeks ago, a young woman asked me, "what is your purpose?" it kind of threw me off. Ok, it really threw me off. It seemed a bit touché to say "to glorify God and enjoy Him forever" when she was looking for specifics. And I get why she's asking. My life does seem pretty random. Thirty-two years old, working on my BA, teaching music part time, working at a coffee shop part time, and living at least an hour from my closest family member. On paper it looks...well...it looks random. I get it. Kind of hard to pull a purpose out of the randomness.  I was talking to the Lord about it because sometimes, even for myself, the person living this life, it's hard to find a specific purpose in the randomness. Sometimes I wonder,  when I get to Heaven if I'm  going to have anything to offer God, if while other people show up with their kids, I'm going to hold out empty hands and say "it's just me." I mean, if He wants soldiers to defeat spiri...
Post a Comment
Read more

Body Image (1)

Contentedly situated in lawn chairs with our toes in the sand and the baby playing on a blanket at our feet, my friend and I watch her girls digging holes or running between the beach and the lake. Periodically, the girls run up to us to display the shells and rocks they've found. At one point, as the girls surround us, one of us adults comments on the baby being chubby (which she is, as a baby should be) after which one of the girls looks at me and says, "you're kind of chubby." She wasn't trying to be rude or smart, she was just being bluntly observant as children are. As I looked at I her and considered an answer, I thought of the baggage of body image that women have carried for generations, and I thought, I don't want her to carry this baggage too. I want better for her.   I replied, "you know, being a little chubby is actually a good thing. Our bodies function better and it helps keep us warm." This deep lesson was probably lost on her as she s...
Post a Comment
Read more

Wasted Gifts? Wasted Time?

You know how you can read the Bible twice, ten times, a hundred times and yet there's still something you haven't noticed or thought about before? That's basically my relationship with 1 Samuel 16:12-23. This is where Samuel anoints David to be king (first he had to meet all David's other brothers because David was the youngest so he was out taking care of the sheep). After the family dinner with Samuel, the text shifts back to King Saul. Because King Saul had disobeyed God, God had removed His Spirit from Saul and sent an evil spirit to terrorize him. In order to sooth the king's suffering soul, Saul's servants go out looking for someone who can play music to make him feel better.  There's a lot to think about in these short verses but the verse that struck me is verse 18.  Then one of the young men said, "Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite who is a skillful musician, a might man of valor, a warrior, one prudent in speech, and a handso...
Post a Comment
Read more