I used to think the worst thing that could happen to me would be that I end up alone, that I wouldn’t find someone to marry, share my life with, have children with or grow old with. These fears and anxiety riddled my brain. Anytime something happened, I felt I could only gain comfort from the love of a man. Anytime another one of my friends found love, or really anytime I let my mind wonder to the fear of loneliness, I felt anxiety.

I go to a small Christian university where “ring before spring” had been engraved in me at orientation. This silly saying only furthered my anxiety that I would not find someone before spring -- or ever. My train of thought included this: If you don’t find someone in college, where else will you? As a result, I grasped on to any male attention given and it only led me to a greater heartbreak than the one I created in my own mind.

If you’re reading this and you’ve felt any of this, please let my words be a cautionary tale for your own well being. Being alone is not the worst thing that could happen to you. Being with someone that makes you feel alone is. That male attention I grasped on to told me all the right things until it didn’t anymore. Until I realized I jumped into something I did not even know. I was so desperate to be loved, I forgot to look for what I love.

The right man is praying for your presence in his life and if you give God some time and just a little bit of faith, I promise you that the wait is worth it. Find comfort in knowing that even without a man, you are never truly alone as long as you have allowed God in your heart.

John 16:32 says, “A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.”

Love when you are ready, not when you are alone.