Women Folk

I'd be lying if I said that I didn't notice there were a generous number of attractive women in Abilene. I'd also be lying if I said I haven't given any thought to potentially dating/wifing any of them. Likewise, it wouldn't be the truth if I were to say that I've been employing an abundance of discernment on which girls I give priority in my thoughts.

In the midst of spending a lot of time with married/engaged couples, who all want to hook me up, and singles, many of whom are looking for a significant other, I finally received some wisdom and direction on the subject. A sister in Christ sent me a book called C.T. Studd: Cricketer and Pioneer. It's a biography, written in the 1930's, about some rich English dude who dominated in cricket and then found life in Christ and ended up becoming a sweet missionary to China and... well, I haven't finished the book yet. BUT, I read a few more chapters yesterday which focused on C.T. meeting and wifing this feisty Irish lass who was in the Salvation Army, also in China. She was quite a catch, let me tell ya. The thing that was so cool about their getting engaged/married was how it was just a natural step in what they were already doing as they followed God. They were both just toodling around China, being persecuted as "foreign devils" and bringing tons of Chinese people to Christ, neither of them wanting to get married. All of the sudden, they ran into each other and realized they'd make a killer team, since they were called to do the same thing for the rest of their lives. The best part is that after they got married, they didn't slow down a bit. There wasn't a doctor around when the wife got pregnant, and they didn't want to take months off from spreading the Gospel while traveling, so they just decided to have the baby right there in the house. They ended up repeating that 3 times with all their daughters. That's so cool.

Needless to say, reading that account gave me a little clarity on what potentially dating/marrying a girl can and must look like if I'm going to do it. I'm not sure if I'm even going to get married, but if I do, it has to be to a girl who's truckin along with God and is placed on the same path I am. I don't know for sure, because I've never been married, but I would guess that all Christ-following couples dream of working together for the advancement of God's kingdom in complimentary roles which God made them for. If you're called to marriage, what could be better?