“This will probably be my last post,” I thought as I wrote the conclusion.

“Yep, I don’t know what else I have to say after this,” I thought as I read the post out loud to my roommate and tweaked a few things.

“I really don’t see my blog going past this week,” I iterated to myself as I posted to WordPress and chose a photo and tags.

“I should probably shut that thing down,” I mused about 10 minutes before another blog post idea started percolating.

And so it went, week after week, post after post, for over 2 years. Every week or month or 6 weeks or so, I’d have a new post idea, and I’d be so excited or scared or ready to share my thoughts and the Gospel and to tell people about Jesus, my Savior, my Best Friend, my future Husband…

I can’t even tell you how many good-bye posts I wrote in my head during my commute, only to get home and have something else to write instead.

But with my last post, there was something different. Something final. I even wrote a good-bye paragraph and then deleted it because I wasn’t quite ready.

I’m ready now.

I’m so happy, you guys. Not happy about shutting down the blog, but I guess…I’m not bound to my identity as a single person anymore, and that’s a good thing. I have a lot of ideas, almost every week, that I want to blog about. I have heaps of posts in my head, and most of them are Gospel-centered; but none of them are about singleness and marriage!

In my last post, I said something about how letting go of the “sure” hope of marriage made me free to make different decisions. Well, I have some updates for you.

Update 1. I decided that if nothing was holding me back, if I could do anything I wanted without marriage on the horizon or over it, I would be an editor of books. Because of self-publishing, I’m able to do that.

Update 2. I decided that I wouldn’t be able to be an editor if I stayed at my job that crushed my soul (half from the commute, half from the work load). So I quit my job and got a new one; this new one is closer to home and is a great blend of hard and easy – just enough to challenge me, but not enough to zap all of my energy for outside of work.

Update 3. This summer, I dated someone for a couple of months. I really, really, really liked him, but things didn’t work out to head toward marriage. That’s okay.

Without the framework of planning to not get married someday, I wouldn’t have made the decision to edit, and I would still be at the job that was bad for me. Also, I would have been majorly devastated at not moving forward with my dating relationship. But because of the realizations and Gospel thinking I outlined in my previous post, I was free to let a job go, free to pursue the career I want, and free to say goodbye to a relationship that I really wanted.

My plan all along has been to turn The Blithe Bachelorette into a Blithe Book, and that may still happen someday. But for now, I’m going to focus on my new job, my church, and my side hustle (editing self-published books). I’m going to focus on Jesus, my roommate, and the people around me. (And I’m probably going to focus on dinner in a minute, tbh.)

I’ll leave you with these verses from Hosea 2:19-20:

And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the Lord. (KJV)

Thank you for being on this journey with me. Thank you for correcting me, calling me out, encouraging me, and sharing your stories.

You’re great.

Jesus is better.

Let’s all meet up in heaven someday. I hear there’s going to be a wedding.

Love,

The Blithe Bachelorette