Latest / The Lila Rose Show / E47: How to Thrive When You’re Single
Transcript
- 0:00You have an incredible purpose for your life.
- 0:03The time and the state that you are in right now.
- 0:05There is an incredible purpose for it and a lot of joy to be
- 0:08discovered in it. Take your focus, that intensity
- 0:12of your experience, and consider what other people are going
- 0:15through. All of our deepest longing is
- 0:18only satisfied in God, who's infinite.
- 0:20But I think it's good to dream about it.
- 0:22I think it is good to desire it. It's a lot more hopeful than you
- 0:26may see. Hey guys, welcome back to the
- 0:32Lila Rose podcast. Today we're going to do a solo
- 0:35episode, so it's just me. We're going to be talking about
- 0:37being single, singleness in today's modern world, how to
- 0:41navigate singleness and to do it in a way to find fulfillment and
- 0:45to set yourself up for success long term.
- 0:50And for most people's part of success means in terms of
- 0:53relationship, marriage. So what does that look like if
- 0:56you are a marriage minded single who is hoping for that one day
- 1:00and you're navigating the rocky world of being single.
- 1:03Now, if you're listening and maybe you're single and you're
- 1:05like, I'm totally good, I'm content.
- 1:07OK, great. I'm very happy for you.
- 1:09I do think this episode will still have some content for you.
- 1:12But this episode is especially for people who are struggling,
- 1:15who are single and maybe they really want to be married, or
- 1:18they're single and they're struggling with loneliness, or
- 1:21they're single and they're feeling like, what do I do with
- 1:24this time in my life where I feel like I'm waiting for
- 1:26something. Or they're single and they're
- 1:29feeling that they're never going to have the future that they
- 1:32hope for. Whatever it might be, they're
- 1:35feeling stuck or they're feeling sad or they're feeling lonely.
- 1:37So this is especially for you, but it's also for you if you're
- 1:40if you're content because you'll get some good principles along
- 1:42the way. Our sponsor for today is 7 weeks
- 1:45Coffee. Seven Weeks Coffee, as you might
- 1:47have heard in the podcast before, is my official coffee.
- 1:50It is what I drink every morning.
- 1:52It is delicious. This is gourmet, ethically
- 1:54sourced coffee that is organic, that is low acid, that is
- 1:58delicious. There's all different kinds of
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- 2:15your order and check out the coffee that is fueling the
- 2:18pro-life movement by giving 10% of all of its revenue to
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- 2:29conservative businesses. Ultimately today a lot of
- 2:33corporations and businesses hate pro-life pro family values.
- 2:36It's really sickening. Many of them are even supporting
- 2:39abortion and paying for abortions.
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- 3:05download the free Public Square app today at the link in the
- 3:08bio. All right, so many of you guys
- 3:10know I am almost five years married, very gratefully
- 3:15married, very happily married to an amazing man.
- 3:19I talked to talk about him a little bit sometimes he's very
- 3:22private, but he is fully supportive of this work.
- 3:25But he's an amazing man. I mean, he was the best man that
- 3:27I had ever met besides my dad. And when I met him, I fell in
- 3:31love very quickly. He fell in love with me.
- 3:33We got married, but before meeting my husband, there was
- 3:37probably a decade, at least in my life of feeling at times
- 3:43worried or concerned or just questioning, hey, where is that
- 3:47future for me? Because I did feel like I was
- 3:49probably called to marriage. And so I was wondering a lot and
- 3:52dating a lot of different guys. And so there were different
- 3:55stresses for me at different points.
- 3:57But these principles that I'm going to share were game
- 4:00changing for me and they made my 20s, which is when I did most of
- 4:04my dating before I got married. They made my 20s incredibly
- 4:08beautiful. Actually.
- 4:09I feel that my single years before I got married were
- 4:12beautiful, beautiful years. And they were punctuated with
- 4:16more joy and growth than with any kind of stress or sorrow.
- 4:19So I'm sharing that because I think that's possible for every
- 4:22person listening, and that's why these principles are so
- 4:24important and so valuable. So the stuff that I'm sharing
- 4:28too is a collection of wisdom and some stories that are from
- 4:34over a decade of my life and from hundreds of conversations
- 4:38I've had with mentors, dozens of mentors and advisors I've had
- 4:41over the years, books that I've read, studies that I've done,
- 4:44retreats that I've done. All of this has helped me really
- 4:48crystallize, especially when I was single, how to be content
- 4:51and how to grow no matter where it was planted, no matter what
- 4:55was going on circumstantially in my life.
- 4:58So first general foundation for everything I'm about to share is
- 5:04I this is for you is to have hope, to have hope about your
- 5:09life, about yourself, about your future, that you, I believe,
- 5:12have a beautiful future that God has an incredible plan for you.
- 5:16Maybe you're not even religious, but I believe that for you that
- 5:19you have an incredible purpose for your life and that the time
- 5:23and the state that you are in right now there is an incredible
- 5:26purpose for it and a lot of joy to be discovered in it.
- 5:30All right, so let's dive in. There are 6 principles I'm going
- 5:33to share. The first principle sounds
- 5:36really simple, but I'm going to break it down because it's
- 5:38really, really important. Without this first principle, if
- 5:42you are single, especially if you're feeling discontented,
- 5:45you're going to really struggle to ever feel contented as a
- 5:48single person because this principle is a key to unlock
- 5:53human peace and satisfaction. Yes, there's supernatural peace
- 5:57that God can give us no matter how difficult our life is, but
- 6:00we're human beings. We're made to live in a certain
- 6:03way. We need food, we need air.
- 6:04There's certain things we need as creatures, as human beings,
- 6:08and this principle is the key to unlock so much joy and peace for
- 6:14you, especially as a single person.
- 6:16OK, it is find your community. Find community.
- 6:22Now community is not just like I'm, I show up at the community
- 6:25gym, you know, three times a week.
- 6:27If you do, that's great, keep doing it.
- 6:29But community is discovering friendship and building
- 6:32relationships with people that are real and authentic.
- 6:36And you actually spend significant portions of time
- 6:40with these people. You cannot do, I cannot do life
- 6:44alone. There's some people who feel
- 6:46like self-sufficiency is really important for them.
- 6:48They're just going to crush it, go out there and they're like
- 6:50man alone, woman alone. But deep down that's not
- 6:54natural, it's not healthy. We're called to live, and we're
- 6:57made to live in community with each other, being known by other
- 7:01people, our flaws as well as our strengths, our joys as well as
- 7:05our sorrows, our desires, our fears, all of these things.
- 7:09We're called to be able to share that with other people.
- 7:11It's natural. And to have other people share
- 7:13that with us. And so, you know, when I was in
- 7:16my 20s, I at one point was living in Washington, DC.
- 7:19So I had opened my live action office there.
- 7:22I had moved out there from California.
- 7:24And I, you know, we were hiring staff.
- 7:26I was building this huge organization.
- 7:28I was making all of this difference.
- 7:30We're doing all these investigative reports of the
- 7:32abortion industry. I was meeting with Congress.
- 7:34I was doing all of these very intense things.
- 7:37And when I first moved to DC, I lived with someone who would
- 7:41become a very dear friend of mine as a roommate.
- 7:44And we had a blast together. She was someone I clicked with.
- 7:47We had similar goals in terms of we wanted to be holy and good
- 7:51women. She was really fun.
- 7:53We would work out together. We would, you know, laugh, we
- 7:56would drink wine. We would talk about things that
- 7:58mattered. We would go out and meet people
- 8:00together. It was a really fun.
- 8:02She was an amazing person, a really fun.
- 8:04We'd cook together. We'd talk about, you know, our
- 8:07cycles as women. That was really important.
- 8:09You know, our hormones, our cycles and balancing them.
- 8:11We did that stuff together and it made life so rewarding and
- 8:16enriching. Along with my work and my
- 8:19mission, my professional work, I would have this amazing
- 8:22relationship with this woman, this friend of mine, and then we
- 8:25had other friends that were in our circle and we would hang out
- 8:27with that was really good and healthy.
- 8:29Well, what happened to me is inevitably we had to move apart
- 8:33from each other. She moved in, I think with some
- 8:35other women or I don't remember if she might have moved home.
- 8:38I ended up moving into a apartment by myself.
- 8:41So I lived by myself. And at first I was like, OK, I'm
- 8:44just going to do this for a period of time until I probably
- 8:46either leave DC or I'm going to find another roommate, but I'm
- 8:50just going to live by myself for now.
- 8:51It's kind of like a quick fix. Well, enter 2 / 2 years of
- 8:55living by myself and there's a lot of reasons for that.
- 8:58I'm not going to get into that. But I would say the hardest part
- 9:01of my entire 20s and dating and everything I would trace back to
- 9:05a lot of it like unnecessary turmoil was living by myself and
- 9:12not living in close community with other especially women at
- 9:15the time. I mean, I was a single woman, so
- 9:17living with other women. So for me, I learned a lesson
- 9:21kind of after the fact because I was busy doing other things and
- 9:24I traveled a ton because of my work.
- 9:27I was traveling internationally. I was doing all of this stuff.
- 9:29Looking back on the time, I realized that yes, I was seeking
- 9:33out community to some degree in DC, but it was really hard to
- 9:36find community. My family was in California, so
- 9:40I couldn't like go home for dinner on a Sunday night with my
- 9:42parents. My siblings, I have seven
- 9:45siblings, were all over the country, mostly in California,
- 9:47couldn't go hang out with my siblings and I didn't really
- 9:50have close friends. Eventually I would make close
- 9:52friends, but I didn't really have close friends in DCI was
- 9:55this activist doing all of this stuff.
- 9:56And so kind of people knew me for that.
- 9:58And I was a boss, I employed people.
- 10:00So I had this responsibility and these roles.
- 10:03That was hard to just kind of show up at a party with other
- 10:06people and just, you know, be normal because I had these other
- 10:09roles and responsibilities. So all that to say, it felt
- 10:12isolating. And if you are in a situation
- 10:16where you feel lonely, you feel like just painfully lonely, I
- 10:21highly recommend that the first solution is not to go out and
- 10:25find the first person that you can date, although be open to
- 10:27dating. We're going to get to that.
- 10:29But if you're feeling lonely, you need human beings.
- 10:31You need friends and sometimes as a single person that might be
- 10:35living with your family. I'm, I'm actually a big
- 10:37supporter of living with one's family.
- 10:38I think that's a beautiful thing.
- 10:40I think obviously there need to be boundaries and things like
- 10:42that. But you know, think about it,
- 10:44living with our family in past generations, that's how
- 10:47generational wealth was conserved.
- 10:49That's how a lot of traditions were passed down until that that
- 10:53generation was ready to leave the house.
- 10:55If that's not your family culture, that's not an option.
- 10:57Don't worry about it. Find someone with shared values.
- 11:02That's really important for her roommate or an apartment mate.
- 11:05Share values who you can start building a little community with
- 11:10and then obviously develop friendships.
- 11:12How do you develop friendships? We might do an episode on this
- 11:14in the future. I'm going to touch on this for
- 11:15just a moment. Some key principles of
- 11:18friendship. Friendship is about, in my
- 11:20opinion, yes, enjoying shared activities, enjoying another
- 11:24person and their amazing personality and their interests
- 11:27and their experiences, sharing yourself with that other person.
- 11:31But friendship ultimately is about looking towards or looking
- 11:34at growth. It's about growing together.
- 11:38It's about becoming more who you're called to be together.
- 11:42So you want to have people that accept you, yes, People that you
- 11:47feel comfortable with, yes. People that you can laugh with,
- 11:49yes. But you also want to have some
- 11:51friends who are going to be willing to talk about important
- 11:55things, things that matter, grow as human beings and really want
- 11:58to grow in their own virtues or their own skills or their own
- 12:01personal development. People that are really going
- 12:03places, not in terms of like worldly success necessarily,
- 12:06although that's good to have drive and ambition.
- 12:08The people who really want to be the best that they can be and be
- 12:12people that are emotionally healthy, physically healthy,
- 12:16mentally healthy, and yes, we all have our struggles and
- 12:20issues, but they're working on health, right?
- 12:23So find friends that you can work on health with.
- 12:26How do you do that? Go to the places where people
- 12:29are working on health. And that's typically not the
- 12:32club or the bar. Not saying bars and clubs are
- 12:34always a bad idea. I think they're often a bad
- 12:37idea, but the people working on their health are going to be at
- 12:40the gym because they're literally working on their
- 12:42health physically at faith or religious activities, because
- 12:45they're working on their eternal health, their spiritual health.
- 12:49They're going to be at, you know, interesting activities
- 12:51where you're growing in skills and learning how to do things.
- 12:53As they're growing on their, they're growing their, the
- 12:55health of their personalities, right or their skills.
- 12:57They're going to be doing community service because they
- 12:59understand that their own virtue and their their health, their
- 13:02spiritual health and emotional health is connected to loving
- 13:05and serving others. So find friends doing those
- 13:09things. And that's a very key part of
- 13:12discovering people that you can really be friends with.
- 13:14So it's hard to be sad when you have great friends.
- 13:17It's hard to be sad when you live in a real community.
- 13:20It's hard to be sad when you feel known and you know other
- 13:25people and you are doing activities and part of this
- 13:29group that's growing together. Yes, I'm not saying that will
- 13:32solve every feeling that you have.
- 13:34You might still be like, hey, I really wish I was married right
- 13:36now or hey, I'm really wish I was in a relationship right now.
- 13:38I'm not saying it will take that away entirely, but it's like
- 13:41night and day. It is night and day for someone.
- 13:44If you are living alone right now and you don't regularly,
- 13:47like multiple times a week, see friends and see people that you
- 13:51do life with, then I don't think it's a surprise if you were
- 13:54feeling pretty miserable. But if you change that and you
- 13:58lived in community and you lived with people that shared your
- 14:00values that you got along with and you saw people multiple
- 14:05times a week to share activities with, then I guarantee you your
- 14:09happiness quotient will increase.
- 14:12And iron sharpens iron. By being with other people who
- 14:16are growing, you will grow. You will become a better person
- 14:20in a way by osmosis, but your behaviors are going to be
- 14:22influenced by the good behavior of other people.
- 14:25If you're just influencing your own behavior all day long
- 14:27because all that you do is like work remotely from your computer
- 14:29and kind of stay home a lot, you're not really going to be
- 14:32growing. So remember, you need community.
- 14:35Find community, build community. It's key.
- 14:38The next principle for anyone who's single is this work on
- 14:42yourself. Work on yourself, especially to
- 14:45the women listening right now. This is an amazing opportunity
- 14:48for you to become the most amazing woman that you can be,
- 14:52and that means a lot of things. I'm going to go through a quick
- 14:56list of what that looks like to work on oneself.
- 14:58But we are constantly, I think as human beings, we should be
- 15:01working on ourselves. We should be as Christians, if
- 15:04you're listening, a Christian asking God to work in US and
- 15:06work through us and work on us and we want to collaborate with
- 15:09God. But any human being, regardless
- 15:11of their faith background or their beliefs is called, I
- 15:13believe, to develop their virtues, their skills, their
- 15:16human person to be the best that they can be.
- 15:19So there's a few categories I want to run through here.
- 15:21First of all, develop your virtue.
- 15:24Develop your virtues. I think we're going to do an
- 15:26episode in the future just on virtues.
- 15:28But what is a virtue? A virtue is living habits of
- 15:32good behavior. It's pretty simple, right?
- 15:34What are your daily habits? What do you do everyday?
- 15:38Do you have habits that are good?
- 15:40Do you have good disciplines in your life?
- 15:42Do you have good modes of thought when you think about
- 15:45other people, when you engage with other people, are you
- 15:48engaging with them in a just and a loving and a merciful way?
- 15:52When you set yourself up to do a task in your work, are you doing
- 15:56it in a principled way, in a way with integrity, with good work
- 16:01ethic? Virtues are for all aspects of
- 16:03your life. There are a lot of virtues you
- 16:05can grow, and I would recommend that you pick one virtue to
- 16:08start with. What is 1 virtue that you feel
- 16:11like you struggle with? Maybe, Maybe it's sloth, maybe
- 16:14it's struggling with being lazy and not getting up on time, or
- 16:17struggling with procrastination and not getting stuff done on
- 16:19time. Pick that as a thing I'm going
- 16:21to work on and just nail. I'm going to get better at this
- 16:24and just try again every day. Or maybe the virtue you want to
- 16:27work on is not gossiping. Maybe you struggle with
- 16:29gossiping and you realize that a lot of your relationships
- 16:32revolve around talking about other people and it's not
- 16:34usually good stuff you're talking about.
- 16:36So maybe that's the thing to eradicate from your behavior.
- 16:40How do you work on a good virtue?
- 16:41How do you develop a good virtue?
- 16:42Well, you try little tiny baby steps, little step every day
- 16:47that you choose. I'm going to show up for this
- 16:48step and if I fail today, I'm going to try again later in the
- 16:52day. Or if I failed today and I'm
- 16:54going to bed and I'm feeling frustrated that I failed, I'm
- 16:56going to wake up and try again. Having a good mentor, having
- 16:59somebody help help you with this is obviously key.
- 17:01We'll save that for another day. But the point here is use your
- 17:05single years to grow in your virtues.
- 17:08Think about the person that you want to be in the next 10 to 20
- 17:12years. Think about if you want to get
- 17:14married, the kind of wife or mother or husband or father that
- 17:18you want to be that you want to show up as.
- 17:20Work on the qualities that you need today to be that person.
- 17:25You can do that. You can do a lot of that work as
- 17:27a single person. You don't need to be married to
- 17:30develop your virtue so that when you were married, you're going
- 17:33to be an amazing spouse. OK, Next, develop your
- 17:36interests, get creative, get curious, try new things, develop
- 17:42new skills that you need. I mean, this could be for your
- 17:45professional work, or it could just be things that you feel
- 17:47drawn to and have a desire for. You know, one of the things that
- 17:51my husband did before we got married, he was in the Navy.
- 17:54So he was a surface warfare officer and he was fantastic at
- 17:57it. But then he also just loved
- 17:59sailing. And so he sailed.
- 18:00He loved to do sailing recreationally when he could
- 18:03after his time in the Navy. And when I started dating him, I
- 18:07loved that about him. It was so beautiful.
- 18:09I got to share that with him. So develop your interests or
- 18:12maybe for professional work, your skills.
- 18:14You're trying to develop your career.
- 18:16OK, What are the skills that you need to grow in?
- 18:18Maybe it's your writing, maybe it's your, if you're in
- 18:21marketing, it's your graphic design, your video editing.
- 18:24Maybe you're getting your education so that you can be
- 18:27start a business or you're already starting a business.
- 18:29So you're developing your business acumen so you have a
- 18:31good advisor. Develop your skills now, put in
- 18:34the work now, because when you're married, when you have
- 18:37kids, you're going to have less time to do the work you have now
- 18:40to put in to skill building. So use this time to build your
- 18:45skills. For me, in my 20s, I was working
- 18:48a lot. Now I didn't just work, I had
- 18:50friends. I spent a lot of time with my
- 18:52family. I spent a lot of time growing in
- 18:54my faith and prayer. But I spent a lot of time
- 18:56working. And that work really helped set
- 18:59me up for expertise and skills that I have today that helped me
- 19:03make contributions in my career while still getting to focus on
- 19:06my family, being a mother and being a wife.
- 19:10OK, Next, develop your emotional health.
- 19:14This can be a tough one. We all have stuff to deal with,
- 19:18some of us more than others. And this is also mental health.
- 19:22We all have mental or emotional stuff to deal with.
- 19:25Maybe we're think we're cool and we're fine.
- 19:27But I guarantee you, once you get into a serious relationship,
- 19:31once you get married, once you have kids, whatever stuff that
- 19:34wasn't resolved before is going to bubble up at one point or
- 19:37another. And it's going to, unless it's
- 19:40resolved or unless it's healed, unless it's fully understood, it
- 19:44can negatively impact your family, your future husband,
- 19:48your future kids. So take the time to understand
- 19:53maybe the wounds or the unforgiveness you have in your
- 19:56own heart or the things that you faced as a kid that really hurts
- 20:01you, that you need to explore and that you need healing for.
- 20:05Do that work? That work typically cannot be
- 20:08done alone. It's typically done with a good
- 20:10spiritual guide, with good and loving and wise friends, with
- 20:14good advisors or mentors. We're not meant to heal alone.
- 20:18We're meant to share our experiences with trusted and
- 20:21wise people, to help us understand our own histories and
- 20:24to help us understand our future then, and what how we want to be
- 20:27in our future. So take the time to work on your
- 20:30emotional and your mental health.
- 20:33Next, your financial health. Take the time to figure out your
- 20:37finances. Maybe you're neck deep in debt
- 20:41from college and you're like, what am I going to do?
- 20:44Make a plan to pay off the debt. Maybe you're working a job, but
- 20:47you're spending a lot of that money because you're like, oh,
- 20:49I'm not married. I don't, I don't have a house
- 20:51yet. I'm you know, I don't have kids
- 20:53yet. So I just have all this free
- 20:55money. So I'm going to do all these
- 20:55vacations. No Save money, save money,
- 20:58invest your money. Maybe if you can, I would even
- 21:01recommend buying property. I mean, do all of this with a
- 21:04good business advisor. I think Dave Ramsey gives a lot
- 21:07of good advice online. There's a lot of people that
- 21:08give good financial advice online.
- 21:10But get financially healthy as best you can.
- 21:13Now, this isn't a requirement. Can't.
- 21:15It's not like you have to be perfectly financially healthy or
- 21:17perfectly emotionally healthy or perfectly, you know, physically
- 21:20healthy in order to get married. Of course not, but you should be
- 21:23working towards health, right? You should be working towards
- 21:26health. And then last two is, yes, your
- 21:28physical health, this includes emotional and mental, but your
- 21:31physical health is also your body.
- 21:33Are you eating good nutrition? Are you working out?
- 21:36Are you taking care of your sleep?
- 21:38Are you making sure that you are fueling yourself and taking your
- 21:41care of your physical body? Because that's longevity in your
- 21:44life, right? Do you want to get married one
- 21:46day, have kids? You want longevity.
- 21:47You want to take good care of yourself and you want to be a
- 21:50person that understands how you got to take care of yourself so
- 21:53you can take care of other people because when you get
- 21:56married, you want to be able to take care of your spouse.
- 21:58In my marriage, I want to be able to cook healthy meals.
- 22:01I want to be able to have a good sleep routine as best I can.
- 22:04When you have little kids, it's really hard, but I want to have
- 22:06good routine so that I can be healthy and show up healthy for
- 22:09my family. Last one is spiritual health.
- 22:13This is something I'm going to touch on more later, but it
- 22:16matters just as much in my opinion as your physical health,
- 22:20your mental health, and emotional health.
- 22:21So we're going to touch on this later, but I just wanted to tag
- 22:23it here. OK, So work on yourself.
- 22:25This is a great opportunity to do all of this, work on yourself
- 22:28and yourself improvement so you can be an even better version of
- 22:32yourself for your future love. And this is going to make you
- 22:36even more beautiful and attractive for that person that
- 22:41you hope to be with one day doing this work now.
- 22:45And this is work for a lifetime, but you have a special time, a
- 22:48special area in your life or a special window in your life now
- 22:52to do this work. OK, so next principle, serve
- 22:55others. If you're single, you're
- 22:56struggling with what do I do? How do I meet this guy or meet a
- 23:00guy or whatever I'm struggling or meet a girl.
- 23:04Take your focus, that intensity of your experience, and consider
- 23:08what other people are going through.
- 23:09When I was in my 20s, again, using my own life experiences
- 23:13here, this is what I have, part of what I have to offer.
- 23:16I was pouring myself out for the pro-life 'cause I saw children
- 23:20were in danger. I saw that they needed help and
- 23:22that I could advocate for them and that their mothers and
- 23:25fathers who were being lied to or they had chosen the wrong
- 23:28path and they were hurt afterwards and deceived.
- 23:31And I wanted to find a way to help.
- 23:33And that took so much pressure off of me.
- 23:36Always worried about me because now I could care about other
- 23:40people and I could serve other people.
- 23:42And you can serve people anywhere you go.
- 23:43You can serve your family, you can serve your friends.
- 23:46You can go volunteer at a homeless shelter.
- 23:49You can go volunteer at a resource pregnancy center and
- 23:52help families there. You can go and discover how to
- 23:55become a Big Brother or Big Sister and mentor other kids and
- 23:58get trained to do that. You can go and show up for a
- 24:01family that you know that has little kids and bring them a hot
- 24:04meal or offer to go and clean their house.
- 24:06I mean, think about any families that you know well enough or
- 24:09family friends where you could just offer to go like weed, the
- 24:12yard. I mean, do something like that
- 24:14practical to help and serve somebody else.
- 24:17It's amazing how rewarding it feels when we serve other
- 24:20people. It literally can give you
- 24:22endorphins. So you're getting actually you
- 24:25could say more than what you're giving by giving.
- 24:29And you're also putting yourself in new context where you could
- 24:33meet someone, or you're putting yourself in new context where as
- 24:36you're developing your skills, your virtues, your for other
- 24:38relationships with the community, it could lead to you
- 24:41meeting somebody. So focus on serving others.
- 24:44Service of others is a key, I think, for any single person.
- 24:47And then when you get married too, but it is a key to
- 24:50discovering satisfaction as a single person.
- 24:54It's hard to be too miserable ourselves when we're considering
- 24:58how other people are feeling and we're actively seeking to help
- 25:02other people feel and live better.
- 25:05OK, next one I said under work on yourself.
- 25:08I ended it with spiritual health and I said I'd talk about it
- 25:10more here. We're going to talk about it.
- 25:12The next one is discover God. I think that God is everything.
- 25:18I think he created us. He loves us, He's our Father,
- 25:21and I think we're ultimately created to live with him forever
- 25:24in heaven. That there is an eternity, there
- 25:26is a life after death. I talk about this sometimes on
- 25:29the podcast, people who aren't religious.
- 25:31I know you're so many of you still listen along because
- 25:34you're curious or you're open to hearing other points of view.
- 25:37Thank you for being here. But I think we're all called to
- 25:40be on a quest to seek the truth. And I believe that God is truth.
- 25:43So use your single years to explore what you believe, why
- 25:48you believe. And ultimately, I pray for you
- 25:51that you you can discover the one true God who I believe is
- 25:53Jesus Christ and put yourself out there for that.
- 25:56Go to, you know, Catholic Mass. If you maybe aren't Catholic,
- 25:59you're not sure what you think about faith.
- 26:02Find wise theological people that can talk to you about God
- 26:06and who is God and answer your questions or objections.
- 26:09Read books about it, listen to podcasts about it.
- 26:12Even if you have time, go on some retreats about it or go on
- 26:15some take some classes about it. One of the things that I did
- 26:17when I was single, as I went on this, I took a lot of different
- 26:20classes and courses, but I went on this retreat to learn about
- 26:23the theology of the body in Pennsylvania.
- 26:25And I did that for a week just to explore what this theology of
- 26:29the body was. I mean, so doing stuff like that
- 26:31is going to help you grow and it's going to help you discover
- 26:33God. So be intentional about that
- 26:36because at the end of the day, all of our deepest longing is
- 26:40only satisfied in God, who's infinite and whose perfect love.
- 26:45And so no matter your circumstances and what happens
- 26:48to you in this life or you know, if you get married and you have
- 26:51struggles in your marriage, you're single, you're
- 26:52struggling. God is the one who can bring you
- 26:55the deepest peace and the deepest consolation regardless
- 26:59of what's going on in your life. OK #5 for the singles who are
- 27:03seeking happiness, put yourself out there as a single person.
- 27:07Don't just stay at home or don't just hang out with the girls.
- 27:10I mean, if you're a girl listening, you're like, I'm just
- 27:12going to do my girls night. Do your girls night please.
- 27:15But push yourself out there if you're seeking ultimately you
- 27:17want to get married. Sometimes that takes putting
- 27:20yourself in new situations, going to the parties or the
- 27:24events that maybe you didn't want to go to or you don't want
- 27:26to go to because you're kind of feeling tired out.
- 27:28But keep showing up. Keep putting yourself out there.
- 27:31Maybe it's getting on dating apps.
- 27:32I am not opposed to dating apps. I know a lot of people who have
- 27:35met and married using dating apps and they're very happy.
- 27:39So not to say that dating apps are failed proof because there's
- 27:42a lot of crazy stuff that happens and people can
- 27:44misrepresent themselves. We'll talk about that another
- 27:47time, but put yourself out there as a single person.
- 27:50It's really, I think one of the the tragedies today when people
- 27:55feel stuck and kind of hopeless about their lack of relationship
- 28:00or they're not married and then they don't try anymore.
- 28:03And I think it's important that we put the work in.
- 28:06Now, if you are a woman, especially typically speaking, I
- 28:10would say let the guy make the first move.
- 28:12This isn't like as a woman go out there and just start asking
- 28:14guys out. But I think sometimes it is
- 28:16appropriate, like leave your phone number.
- 28:18If you feel like there's chemistry, leave your phone
- 28:20number. You're at a restaurant.
- 28:21I was just talking with a girlfriend of mine.
- 28:23That's how she met her husband and now father of her, I think 4
- 28:26kids. She literally left her phone
- 28:28number for him at a restaurant and he was the waiter.
- 28:31And they're happily married now. So stuff like that happens.
- 28:35So, but put yourself out there, put yourself out there, meet
- 28:37people, go unexpected places. You know, certainly church is
- 28:40good in the gym and things like that, But find places where you
- 28:44can meet more people. Maybe it's dating apps as well,
- 28:46travel, do interesting things, put yourself out there.
- 28:49The last principle for singles is have vision.
- 28:52Have a vision of what you want to be and the kind of marriage
- 28:56you hope to have and the kind of person that you hope to meet.
- 28:59Have a desire like what are your desires?
- 29:02Have your desires and develop in your mind.
- 29:04What is the vision that you hope for in the future?
- 29:06Now, this isn't to say that you should have this list of they
- 29:09have to be exactly this tall with this color eyes and they
- 29:12have we have to live in this state.
- 29:14That's not really what I mean by vision, by the way, it's not
- 29:16wrong to want those things. It's not, but why vision?
- 29:19I mean, have a sense in your mind of what it is I'm aiming
- 29:23for. Do I want a family one day?
- 29:26Do I want to get married one day?
- 29:27What kind of healthy marriage do I hope for one day?
- 29:31What kind of healthy person and good person do I hope to be with
- 29:34one day? Because that I think ultimately,
- 29:37yes, it can make you feel sometimes unrest restless
- 29:40because you're like, I don't have that.
- 29:42But I think it's good to dream about it.
- 29:44I think it is good to desire it. I think some people would say,
- 29:47oh, don't don't think about it too much, but I think it's
- 29:49actually good. I think some people give up.
- 29:51They give up on the dream. They give up on having hope for
- 29:55the future that they might have. It's a lot more hopeful than you
- 29:58may see. Like, listen, you might be
- 30:00feeling really depressed, like I have not met them.
- 30:03You know, maybe you're 33 or you're 35 and you're like, I'm,
- 30:06I'm in my 30s. I still haven't met this person.
- 30:08There's a lot of people in the world.
- 30:09In the United States alone, I think there's 119,000,000
- 30:12singles, 119,000,000 singles over the age of 18.
- 30:15So there's a lot of people out there in the United States
- 30:18alone. So be hopeful.
- 30:20I think God is a plan for you and I think that you and your
- 30:24focus on these other principles and your hopefulness is really
- 30:28key and you can grow as a person and you can grow in your own
- 30:33contentment to prepare you for that amazing love story that God
- 30:37has for you. I believe that, yes, no one has
- 30:40promised love, no one has promised marriage, but I really
- 30:42believe God has a plan for you and just be hopeful.
- 30:45It could be right around the corner.
- 30:47It only takes one. Don't lower your standards.
- 30:50Have hope, have joy, do these other principles.
- 30:53There's someone out there who is probably hoping and wishing to
- 30:56meet Someone Like You and they just haven't met you, you yet.
- 31:00Drop your information in the comments too.
- 31:02If you're single and you're like hey I'm single and I'm in what
- 31:04state and I enjoy doing XYZ things and this is my face,
- 31:08background, whatever. Maybe people can meet each other
- 31:10in the comments. So to wrap up here, find
- 31:12community. Can't do it alone.
- 31:14Work on yourself, become the best you can be, serve others,
- 31:18find God, put yourself out there and finally be hopeful.
- 31:24You're going to crush it. It's going to be great.
- 31:26God bless you guys Don't forget to subscribe to the Lila Rose
- 31:29podcast if you haven't already, the Lila Rose YouTube channel.
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- 31:36you get a new episode when we put it out leave a comment.
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- 31:48and the team that helped create this content.
- 31:51Check out Patreon. For those that subscribe to
- 31:53Patreon in the future, we'll go get some special stuff behind
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- 31:58So go to the Patreon link in the bio and don't forget to also
- 32:00leave a review and that will help the podcast reach more
- 32:04people. Thank you all so much.