The single season is a season which we can maximize for our self-development in every dimension of life. Part of this development is Character development. As Christians, through the works of the Holy Spirit in us, we are able to bear the fruits of the Spirit and our character is an outward manifestation of the fruit we bear. As singles, we can avail ourselves for the Holy Spirit to help us bear good fruit and we also have to go along with the circumstances we face, which may present us with the opportunity to nurture some character traits. This write-up continues highlighting some important character traits Christian singles should nurture, drawing inspiration from the story of Ruth in the Bible. (Please visit our previous write-ups to read more on singlehood season.)
Submissiveness: Some qualities embodied in submission include humility, obedience, respect and yielding.
Ephesians 5:21-22 tells Christians to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ and wives to submit to their husband as to the Lord. The story of Ruth makes us understand that Christian singles can start nurturing this quality during their single season. Ruth was very humble, yielding and obedient to her mother in-law Naomi. In Ruth 1,2,3 we see how Ruth respected and obeyed Naomi. Before going out to the fields, she informed Naomi and went to the field after Naomi had given her approval. We see humility in Ruth when she fell at Boaz’s feet to thank him for the favor he showed her. We see how Ruth yielded to Naomi’s advice in Ruth 3. Its our Christian duty to be submissive to one another and with the help of the Holy Spirit we can keep on nurturing these qualities being submissive to those whom we are subject to and in our relationship with other brethren.
Hard work: Living a purposeful life entails continual work. The single season is a great time to invest and build on different dimensions of our life. For instance your vocation, profession, home management, time management, multitasking etc. During her single season, Ruth’s profession was farming and she worked so hard on Boaz’s field that she could not go unnoticed. Her vocation was catering for Naomi which she did with a lot of passion and while doing that she was surely learning how to cater for a home. Ruth nurtured multi-tasking seen in how she worked well in the Boaz’s field and took good care of Naomi. So an attitude of hard work can be nurtured during the single season.
Generosity: Generosity is usually expressed in giving lovingly to others or putting others before yourself.
Our world today is characterized by a lot of selfishness and self-centeredness. Someone seeking what pleases him alone even if it hurts every other person. We need to be generous in our actions. This too can be nurtured. Ruth in her singlehood was very generous towards Naomi that Boaz heard the story of her generosity even before encountering her. Boaz surely heard of how Ruth left her home of origin to follow and take care of Naomi . This implies she put Naomi’s interest before hers.
Honesty: Honesty embodies being loyal, truthful, trustworthy, accountability and integrity.
One of the things Ruth really portrayed was honesty. She was loyal to Naomi, very truthful, accountable and acted in all integrity. She told Naomi where she was going and she went to the field to do exactly what she told Naomi she was going to do. On her return, she gave account of all what happened and Naomi trusted Ruth such that she gave her sound advice knowing Ruth will surely obey. In our society today, honesty seems to be far fetched but it can be nurtured. We can start by being honest with those around us.
As singles, many of us desire marriage which is a very important institution established by God and is the centre of human existence as per Yetunde Ayeni in the book “Woman: helpmeet or hell loose”.Marriage is such a blessing and a season of life we admire and most of us desire.
Life has different seasons. Ecclesiastes 3:1 and 11(NLT) says “For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven… Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time…”. Adam lived a single season in the presence of God and carrying out a God-given task of catering for the creatures under his care before his union with Eve. Thus, if there is a season for everything in the Christian journey, then singlehood is surely a season with a God-given purpose. The bible has alot of Narratives which teach us so much about the single season and what we outlined through our write-ups on the single season are just a few. So, let’s go to God who established the single season, and through the help of the Holy Spirit, we would be able to walk through and bear good fruits during this season to the Glory of God.