Sunday was the celebration of Epiphany \u2013 the arrival of the Three Kings\u2019 visit to the Holy Family. The manifestation of the Lord. So why should I have received little knots in my tummy on Friday when I received this invitation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt’s that time of the year for our annual Epiphany get together with spouses! (Etc. etc. etc.)\u201d \u201cI am asking that you reply to this email no later than Monday (Jan 9) letting me know if you will be able to make it or not and if your spouse can make it too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yes, a \u201clittle\u201d pang hit my heart. I was tempted to send in \u201cI wish!\u201d LOL! I am being facetious because, with God\u2019s grace, I\u2019ve adapted well to my \u201csingle\u201d status.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yes, \u201cSingle\u201d is the box I check in \u201cMarital Status\u201d if it doesn\u2019t have a box \u201cWidow(er)\u201d to check. Once upon a time I checked the \u201cmarried box\u201d AND took my spouse with me to the \u201cplus one\u201d invitation. This invitation wasn\u2019t \u201cplus one\u201d. It was \u201cspouse\u201d!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My encouragement to you, my wonderful friends, whether you bear the \u201csingle\u201d OR \u201cmarried\u201d status, is to value what\u2019s most important and convey the words of what your loved ones mean to you daily and cherish them with all your heart. Comfort and joy are ours when we embrace each day as a keepsake and precious treasure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A famous orator once was asked to recite Psalm 23, which begins, \u201cThe Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.\u201d When he finished, the audience clapped with excitement. Then an old minister was asked to recite the same psalm. He was clumsy and not very polished in his delivery, and his grammar was a bit off. Yet when he finished, there wasn\u2019t a dry eye in the room. What made the difference? It was the elegant orator who responded: \u201cI know the psalm, but he knows the Shepherd.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The joy and comfort that Christ provided in our yesterdays is the same today. Perhaps the most famous line of Psalm 23 is verse 4: \u201cYea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In this life there is much suffering and sorrow, disease, and even death. It is the shadowy valley that God\u2019s children often must walk through. But Christ, the Great Shepherd, is ever present to give us His peace when we are at a \u201ctable of one\u201d or the \u201cplus one\u201d or \u201cno spouse\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because \u201cthe Lord is OUR shepherd,\u201d we have a relationship that says: \u201cI am never alone!\u201d Yes, chances are we can feel a bit lonely at times, but we can wipe those sad songs off our woe-is-me playlist and the crummy moods off our etch-a-sketch pad. Goodness! We HAVE social media and beyond and we can live an upbeat, joy to the world, life every day!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I often speak or write about the seasons in our lives. We ebb and flow our way through the years, never feeling like we are always weak, always strong, always tired, always victorious. Sometimes we stand tall and we fight. Sometimes we go dormant and we rest. Sometimes we reflect and grow. We don\u2019t have to be \u201con\u201d every single day of our lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But, dear friends, we should never believe when we\u2019re down, we are destined to stay there. The season of being a couple and bringing my spouse with me to an event has changed, but you know what? I changed too! Because I was willing to change, I am embracing the changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, I sit with my single friends, laugh, and celebrate life with them. But I also sit with my married friends (some of whom are my closest friends), hang out with them, and even travel with them. I am not defined by my marital status, and neither should you be. Perhaps being defined by our relationship status with our Lord, is the status that matters the most because, in Him, we are complete.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sunday was the celebration of Epiphany \u2013 the arrival of the Three Kings\u2019 visit to the Holy Family. The manifestation of the Lord. So why should I have received little knots in my tummy on Friday when I received this invitation? \u201cIt’s that time of the year for our annual Epiphany get together with spouses!…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25579,25577,25578,25580],"tags":[1210,567,1769,569,359,25573,40,572,573,22374,19639,25369,25572,2846,25575,18472,577,25576,25574,578],"class_list":["post-17408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bring-spouses","category-marital-status","category-plus-one","category-relationship-status","tag-blog","tag-bring-spouses","tag-christian","tag-ebb-and-flow","tag-epiphany","tag-he-knows-the-shepherd","tag-inspiration","tag-invitation","tag-marital-status","tag-married-box","tag-orator","tag-playlist","tag-plus-one","tag-psalm-23","tag-reflect-and-grow","tag-relationship-with-jesus","tag-single","tag-status","tag-table-of-one","tag-widow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17408"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17416,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17408\/revisions\/17416"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}