Slavic Christian singles

To the single, Slavic Christian young men and women who have settled for less in relationships despite being precious daughters and sons worth dying for in the sight of Christ:

Do you see yourself as such?

So many young Slavic Christian clients I serve in my private practice sabotage themselves because they’ve believed in lies that satan has told them, “You are unlovable, you are too rigid, your standards for love and relationships are too high, you are unwanted, too old, are not good enough to get married, are imperfect, are dirty and broken, are worthless, etc.”

I want to tell you otherwise, dear one. 

Please don’t listen to these lies and sell yourself short of the glory and beauty God has in store for you. 

You don't deserve a partner that forces you to have sex (or pressures you to engage in every selfish and inappropriate act up to that point) to be loved; you don't deserve to numb your secret pain with drugs or alcohol, you don't deserve to watch porn and think that's love because you're lonely.

You deserve to know that your value and identity lie in Christ, and He will give you the desires of your heart for a Godly spouse, heal your pain-filled heart, and satisfy your loneliness.

This is the truth Christ taught me to see myself as, but do you believe it for yourself?

I used to hear these same lies. I used to believe and live according to them. I chased ungodly relationships, I settled for less despite knowing better, I accepted pain from men as usual and thought, “This is how it’s always been [growing up], this is how it’ll always be…”

When I discovered the love of Jesus, He spoke a completely different narrative. He said, “You are more than the choices you’ve made, you are more than the sum of your past mistakes, you are more than the problems you think you’ve created-you’ve been remade.”

I recognized at that moment that I could either believe the truth that God has spoken because His sacrifice on the Cross proved these words to be accurate and walk in freedom, or I could stay in the bondage of the lies, continue to sabotage myself and suffer by chasing the love from men that only Christ can give. The choice became apparent at that point because I came to the end of myself and couldn’t go on any longer. 

Dear one, I encourage you to recognize that you have the same choice standing before you today. 

Do you see yourself as redeemed, bought by the price of the blood of a perfect Lamb, chosen as one among many for “such a time as this, for such a purpose as this,” or will you continue to see yourself as the tainted, flawed, no-good person that the enemy says you are?

Will you trust in the love of Christ to change your future instead of living according to the compromising decisions of the past?