The Way to Proverbs 31

I have loved writing since I wasn't even old enough to spell. It took me a long time to realize that it's because writing is the way I best express myself, analyze circumstances, and make observations about people. I love people.

One thing I notice when I look back over old writing is what it says about the man I hope to marry someday. That image of an "ideal husband" has changed over the years, and I love to see how the Lord has shaped in me a desire for his primary quality to be love of the Lord. Look at one part of a short story I wrote a few years ago:

[over skype] She settled back into the armchair in her bedroom and listened to her sweet boyfriend tell her about pranks and then about several boys in his cabin whom he had been blessed to help lead to faith in Christ that weekend and other who had come to him for help in relationships. His eyes truly shone, though his face was serious, when he told her about their fruitful conversations. “I don’t know why these boys all came to me, but I was so blessed to have been used in that way,” he said.

Courtney smiled at his sincerity. “I think God’s gifted you with a quiet and wise spirit that those boys trust. He gets so much glory through your work because you give all praise to Him and teach those boys to do the same.” She suspected from his gentle weariness that not only had he kept late middle-school camp hours but that he had also gotten up early to pray for each of those boys every day.

The idea of spending forever with a man of God like this sort of melts my heart.

Let me just say, by the way, that as much as I await being a wife and mother someday with anticipation, I am so very happy being unattached. The Lord has blessed me and grown in my heart such joy in His salvation over the past few years.

But I want to know, what is the best way I can pray for the man the Lord will someday give me to serve and love? What is the best way I can prepare now to be a godly wife who doesn't lose patience with the human ordinariness of married life that I know will come along with the romance? You married women, tell me, please! (And you single girls, let me know if and how you pray for your future husband too!)