michelle mckinney hammond
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible: New International Version. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. The NIV and New International Version trademarks are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by International Bible Society. Verses marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189, U.S.A. All rights reserved. Verses marked TLB are taken from The Living Bible, Copyright 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved. Verses marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Bible. Verses marked RSV are taken from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Copyright 1946, 1952, 1971 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. Verses marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Verses marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible, 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. Verses marked TEV are taken from the Today s English Version Second Edition Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission. Verses marked NEB are taken from The New English Bible, The Delegates of the Oxford University Press and the Syndics of the Cambridge University Press 1961, 1970. Reprinted with permission. Verses marked YOUNG S are taken from the Young s literal translation of the Bible. Cover by Koechel Peterson & Associates, Inc., Minneapolis, Minnesota Cover photo Daniel DuVerney Published in association with the literary agency of Alive Communications, Inc., 7680 Goddard Street, Suite 200, Colorado Springs, CO 80920 SASSY, SINGLE, AND SATISFIED Copyright 2003 by Michelle McKinney Hammond Published 2010 by Harvest House Publishers Eugene, Oregon 97402 www.harvesthousepublishers.com ISBN 978-0-7369-2680-5 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data McKinney Hammond, Michelle. Sassy, single, and satisfied / Michelle McKinney Hammond. p. cm. ISBN 978-0-7369-0487-5 (pbk.) 1. Single women Religious life. 2. Christian women Religious life. I. Title. BV4596.S5.S347 2003 248.8'432 dc21 2002014462 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, digital, photocopy, recording, or any other except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 / BP-KB / 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
CONTENTS Introduction............................ 7 1. Meditations on Life..................... 11 2. Love............................... 67 3. Men............................... 115 4. Some Final Thoughts on Happiness...... 169
Start with Surrender Getting wisdom is the most important thing you can do! And whatever else you do, get good judgment. PROVERBS 4:7 NLT Exactly what have you got? And what do you understand so far about life, love, and men? And especially about yourself? Let s look at your collection. Hmmm, sad love stories of the one who got away. Romances that almost were or endless days spent alone wondering why? Experiences that made you wiser, if not older. A laundry list of questions for when you finally have a throne-room, face-to-face conversation with God. Oh, but what have we here? A gem tucked away in the corner of your treasure chest. Surrender. That s it. Surrender to the sovereignty of God. Whether you believe it or not, God is still in control. He has every single one of your days written in His book, and according to His calculations, you won t arrive a day later or earlier than what has been scheduled. Try to scoot ahead of the program, and you will experience a setback a nudge back to where you should be. Try to lag behind, and you will find yourself learning things in a course you didn t know you signed up for. Take it from me. In the end God always has His way. Surrender to His ways and learn your lessons the easy way. Understanding His heart toward you and His will for your life is critical to your heart condition. What you believe will color all your decisions. You will either rest in His plan or make 13
14 SASSY, SINGLE, & SATISFIED painful choices because you feel you have no other options anything goes. In this instance, something becomes better than nothing. There couldn t possibly be a bigger lie than that rationale for settling beneath your calling. Understand that, in God s economy, you will always have choices. His desire is for you to be in the position to make the best ones. What else should you understand? Understand that He loves you. He wants the best for you. He hears you. He wants you to be happy and complete. He has a plan. He s working it out for you. So wait on the Lord and be of good courage. He will strengthen your heart for the duration until He delivers your deepest desires. In the meantime, understand that no matter how you feel, this isn t about your feelings. It is bigger than that. It is about His divine plan for your life. And dahling, it is simply fabulous! Just wait, you ll see.
Daily Bread Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. MATTHEW 4:4 RSV What exactly does this have to do with me being happy? you might be thinking. This is where we must start. What is bread? In today s verse, Jesus is talking about physical bread that sustains us. We can take this one step further. Bread is whatever we think sustains us. Food, love, achievements, money, material things that make us feel better about ourselves you name it. What does it take to bring you satisfaction? To put a smile on your face? To make you say, Hey, I m feeling pretty good about myself? Now trash that list. It will never be enough. We ve seen them. People who have everything and yet they are still miserable. They still have days when they scratch their heads and wonder, Is this all there is to life? Now, mind you, that might be hard for us to imagine, but catch any of them on the right day and you will see the hint of secret longings and unfulfilled desires lurking in the shadows of their eyes. Why? Because after all is said and done, our relationship with God and the trust we have in His promises are what truly sustains us. Through the good, the bad, and the ugly, His Word is the foundation of our peace and fulfillment. I had to learn how to personalize the Word of God for myself in order to draw comfort and instruction from it. So for the 15
16 SASSY, SINGLE, & SATISFIED sake of where I want to take you, I will be sharing the things He has taught me. Now for those of you who are religious, I m not adding a jot or a tittle to the Word; I m simply making it plain for where you really live. God never designed His Word to be so spiritual that it would be of no earthly good. After all, He knows that we are mere dust and knows the way we work. He wants to get real with us, if you know what I mean. So let s get down to the nitty-gritty on what we need to know to get happy, okay?
Buried Treasures Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs JONAH 2:8 As Jonah sat in the belly of the great fish, he had a lot of time to collect his thoughts. I, too, have been consumed by my desires and found them overwhelming to the point that I forgot how blessed I presently was. Things that should have brought me joy were ignored as I considered all that I wanted and still didn t have. They were worthless idols, only promising joy but not delivering. Can you relate? Hmmm What are worthless idols? All of the things that we think will make us happy. All the things that we believe are the answer to a contented life. Have you ever seen an outfit or a piece of jewelry that you just had to have? You saved your shekels religiously for it, and finally the day came when the thrill of making that item yours became a reality. You enjoyed it. Showed it off to your friends. Wore it proudly. Then one day you saw something else, and you put your treasure in the closet or your jewelry box and became caught up in the pursuit of the new acquisition. Perhaps you even forgot you had the original thing until you decided to spring clean and rediscovered it. I m guilty, too. Ah, how quickly the romance dies why? Why can t we ever be satisfied? Because most of the things we long after are temporal in the end, pretty worthless. I believe God wants us to learn 17
18 SASSY, SINGLE, & SATISFIED that everything in life is temporary except His awesome love for us. It is the one thing that will never lose its luster. What is the grace that slips through our fingers as we pursue what we think we want? Present joy. Present fulfillment. Blessings overlooked because we are too focused on the one thing we can t have. We walk right past friendships rich with promise, career opportunities, places not traveled to, new experiences never tried, little loving arms that long to be held just as much as we do are you getting the picture? So many times we put off for tomorrow what should be done today. Today s treasures are buried under our longing for what we think tomorrow will bring. How typical of the enemy of our souls to keep us distracted from the present by binding us to worrying about our future! Here is the bottom line: Today is today. It comes complete with its own set of joys and minidramas. Leave tomorrow alone; it will come soon enough. For now, choose to embrace what is available and possible and enjoy it. Choose to live in the moment and collect wonderful memories. After all, in the end all you will have is your remembrance of yesterday once the next day dawns. You will either live to regret it or celebrate it. The choice is yours.