What singles really want to tell their married friends

[This is a guest post from an 11 year old friend. She's not 11, I've just known her for 11 years. Ladies and gentlemen, meet my friend ashley or "a" as she's frequently known in the comments section. Oh, shoot, did I just reveal your secret identity? whoops...] 

Hi. My name is 'a'. Have you seen the movie 27 Dresses? I'm basically Katherine Heigl in that movie. "Always the bridesmaid, never the bride".

I'm a single girl who longs to be married to the man God has for me, but unfortunately, He hasn't united us yet. For the first time in my life I'm actually "OK" with being single (emphasis on first time)...

In fact, I really love where He has me right now. Previously though, I used to believe a lot of lies from the enemy like:

* you've missed your chance.
* your sin is too great to be blessed with a marriage.
* you're undesirable.
* you're too selfish.
* you're not ready to partner with anyone in life...
* and you never will be...

Intellectually, I understand these are all lies. But when you're quickly approaching the big 3-0 and *still* single, there's all sorts of struggles that I (and maybe you) have to deal with.

About 90% of my friends are married and starting families and I'm extremely happy for them. I love their families. They have great, adorable kids and amazing, God fearing husbands. They're living for the glory of God and are on a journey of greatness for His renown. However, they are human and they have issues. (I love you all!)

One of my biggest struggles is when my married friends say something like "just be glad you don't have to ______________". Fill in the blank with some sort of "terrible issue"...

*do laundry for 4 people
*clean dirty diapers all day
*worry about your kids walking in on you and your husband (and yes, before you ask "did that really happen?!?"...YES, it did, and YES, it's inappropriate!!!)

My point is, everyone struggles. Married people. Divorced people. Widows and widowers. Parents. Singles. College-aged. Teens. Young adults. Seniors. Everyone.

My encouragement is simple: everybody's struggles are HUGE. And, very real. My married friends long for the freedom that I have but guess what married people, I long to have your lives and struggles.

Crazy? Probably, but the reality is that I would MUCH rather live life and share struggles WITH someone as opposed to being "in this on my own".

Be cautious about minimizing what your friends are going through. We're in this thing called life, together. We need each other. Being married is hard. Being single is hard. Neither is better or worse than the other, and they're both needed in the body of Christ.

Marrieds, just remember that no matter how hard things get, you said "I do" and if you had it to do all over again, you probably would. Singles, love your lives. There's PLENTY of blessings available that aren't accessible to you at later stages in your life.

Thoughts to ponder:

Singles, can you relate to my season of life/lies I struggle with? Also, what is one thing you'd love to tell your married friends?

Marrieds, what is one thing you'd love to tell your single friends?

Everyone, what are some of the "grass is greener on the other side" kinds of things that you long to experience?