I pray that we are ready for each other. I am also trying to get ready if I’M actually the problem. I’m glad you met your guy at 61 but I am hoping to have (many) children one day. Time is running out. . .
I always try to defer to God’s will. But I have to admit that I am disappointed. I actually told God, Our Lady and St. Joseph that this morning. I am NOT mad or upset with God. But I am disappointed.Hi!
It is not my intention to discourage your prayers, and I am just assuming you’ve discerned this is the right path for you, so I won’t go into that.
Sometimes you have to trust that God hears your prayers, and to leave it with him for a while. It’s hard sometimes when we don’t get what we want, so we keep praying and praying and praying, and then we start to lose faith. What we should really want is conformity to God’s will. So work on that.
I don’t mean to imply that conforming to God’s will means to accept that he does not want you to be married, because I really don’t know, but what is God’s will in other areas of your life. How can you be a great Lay woman? How can you be more faithful, more joyful, and more loving in your daily life? Seek first the Kingdom and all that…
Peace
PS. But, maybe you are setting your expectations too high? Maybe you can try praying for a coffee date first…
Thank you for your reply and encouragement.
I do this too! I read a great book called Praying for Your Future Spouse and I learned to pray for all sorts of things for “him.” I think this helps to make it seem like we’re connected somehow. . .
Thanks for your encouragement.We’re on our 4th or 5 novena to St. Joseph concerning finding a new home. Mostly we pray to discern God’s will for us, tho we still ask for the outcome we want.
What can seem like no answer is really either “no” or “not yet.” Patience!
I love the saints and have prayed so many novenas over the past few years (for the intention of meeting the right man for marriage) but this prayer has not been answered. Most recently I prayed to St. Joseph and hoped for a miracle today but nothing happened. I love the saints but I’m discouraged. I know they are subject to God’s will too but I hoped one of these novenas would come to fruition.
I feel like God is the center of my life. I’m not perfect but my life pretty much revolves around my faith. Also, I’m not a miserable person to be around. I keep an active life and try to do things that I enjoy instead of wallow in self-pity at home. But at the end of the day, when I am all alone, it’s just me and the Lord. He *is *enough but he can’t give me a hug, you know? I try to spend time in His presence in the monstrance as much as I can because at least I can see Him then. Anyway, thank you for your prayers. I will try to keep going!
Thank you. If He would very firmly just tell me that marriage is not His will, I could move on–I really could. It’s the deferred hope and dashed realities that make it hard sometimes.Sweet friend, no answer is still an answer. While it is possible that the answer you are receiving is “No, my child. Marriage is not what I have intended for you.” it is equally possible that the answer is simply “Not yet”.
Hope is so fickle sometimes, and it is surprisingly easy to lose. To safeguard myself against this, I try to avoid prayers that are specific and focus on prayers that are intended to align my heart with the Father’s will. This doesn’t mean that I don’t share my heart and express my wants and desires with Him–either directly or through the saints–but I always try to recall Christ in the garden of Gethsemane where He asked that the cup be taken away, but specified “Only according to Your will”. This alone tells us that sometimes, God’s will may differ greatly from our own. And we saw how it played out–Christ was tortured, mocked and crucified. This was God’s will.
I don’t mean to paint a dark picture for you. Just perspective. Put your trust and faith in God, not in any ideas or longings of your own heart. He will care for you exactly how you need to be cared for!! :hug3:
p.s. Just an add on… continue praying for your future spouse. I prayed for mine since childhood, and he made some pretty terrible choices when he was a teen and early adult. I hate to think what choices he would have made had those prayers NOT been offered on his behalf!
Thank you. I love that image from St. Faustina.
What you’re asking for is knowledge of the future. I understand - I’ve wanted to know the future, too - but that knowledge isn’t ours. We have to keep on trusting God without knowing what is in store for us.
