How in the world can you connect the article you based this on in any way with a single woman being content in her singleness? Maybe I'm reading it wrong, maybe you're just trying to get a dialogue going? I'm single, divorced, & at this point I don't think I'll ever be married again. I'm fine with that & I'm also fine with people not being fine with it. It took me a few years, some mistakes, some great conversation & studying & praying before I finally FINALLY recognized that yep, God does indeed fill every need I have. He is my provider, He is my friend, He comforts me, He loves me, He IS the perfect "husband" & that's scriptural. And, by the way, even when I was married all those things were true. Creepy?? I guess you'll have to work that out with God yourself. Sexual? Um, no, although He does help me when I'm tempted (as He promises). Am I "trivializing Jesus"? No, quite the opposite. I have peace & joy & contentment & I know I'd have none of that without Him.

I know that Jesus has the kind of love for me that I want from a boyfriend/ husband. He loves the me that he created, the real me that is beautiful and perfect. He loves it when my heart sings for him, when I take the joy and love in my heart and spread it to other people so that they can feel it, too. Doesn’t he think that is beautiful? Yes, he does. He loves me like that- is it so wrong to love that love? Is it so wrong to, when I’m feeling down and worthless and ugly, look at that love and look at my savior and be reminded that I’m worth something and that someone loves me and thinks I’m beautiful? And no, I’m not talking about my eyes or my hair or my body. I’m talking about inner beauty. So is it so bad? Is it so bad to love Jesus like that?

Dear Katelyn, You're preaching from your own opinion. Self-marriage and a relationship with Jesus are SO COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. The title doesn't fit the content, at all. It's very scattered. p.s. Your article confesses that you value a mere earthly marriage more than the unfailing, never-ending, soul-satisfying relationship with Jesus. Know who were the expert critics? Pharisees. Go read your Bible.

Finally, the article is an insult to those Christian people who for centuries did indeed willingly give up everything, including marriage, to live for God most fully. There were countless saints and holy men and women of God who did just that. Some were priests, monks, nuns...some were leaders like Queen Elizabeth I, and some were just everyday people. Some were missionaries, some were martyrs. ALL of them knew that God comes first and that marriage is not the end~all~be~all of our lives. It wasn't until Martin Luther came in there and pushed this idea that everyone had to be married. His way of thumbing his nose at the Catholic Church. Even in Eastern Orthodoxy, marriage isn't viewed as some vehicle of social mobility. It's considered a martyrdom. There's more ways to view this thing from the narrow Evangelical Protestant North American way.

Seeing Christ as your boyfriend/spouse doesn't not eschew earthly marriage. It does say in Scripture marriage is honorable, but it doesn't say it's the ONLY way for someone to live. Our first love, married or unmarried, should be God. Anything else is idolatry.

Also, maybe we need to question the way we've distorted the ideas of love and marriage and manipulated them to fit our own selfish ways (the overemphasis on sex and romance), then you'll see why some here are rejecting the idea of Christ as our heavenly Spouse. Men shouldn't feel the least bit threatened by this idea. It's not like you think. St Symeon the New Theologian wrote of Divine Eros and how it means getting lost in God and His love. Eros doesn't just mean some sexual idea. It's also a deep sense of intimacy and trust. I think that sort of thing has been lost in Western Christianity, particularly Protestantism.

This is for those of you posting offensive things and mocking the idea of Jesus being a single woman's boyfriend. You are totally misunderstanding of the concept. No, Jesus isn't my "boyfriend" in the sense of an earthly partner whom I can hug and kiss and flirt with. He's so much more than that. Jesus is my HUSBAND! In fact, if you are a Christian who has been saved, he is ALL of our Husband. How's that? Christ is the husband to the Church (and this goes for all Christians/The Church, male and female). It says so right in Scripture in several places, particularly in Ephesians 5 as well as in Isaiah 54. In Sacred Tradition in the Orthodox Church, as well as in Scripture Christ is referred to as The Bridegroom. Check out the parable of the five wise/foolish virgins for more on that. I don't take that relationship with Christ lightly. The relationship of Christ and His Church is profound and special and enduring and it is FOREVER, and it should never, ever be trivialized as to be made into some limiting secularized romantic thing that can be put aside at any given moment like a human partner often is. Earthly marriage is supposed to be a reflection of the relationship between Christ and the Church, and if people understand that better they wouldn't say the rude and decidedly anti-Christian things they are saying. Just FTR, I do have "dates" with Jesus, they're called prayer and attending worship services. I go to All Night Vigil at my church each Saturday night and I do refer to it as my steady Saturday Night Date. I'd much rather be there than on any worldly date, and I don't think there is anything wrong with it or anything to laugh at or mock. If more single people attended services, prayed, and put GOD first instead of making a god of romance, dating and marriage they would be much better off. It's the non-believing or lukewarm "Christian" who need to wake up...as it says in Scripture. The Bridegroom comes as a thief in the night, and you need to decide whether or not you'll be like the wise virgin who is ready or the foolish one who is not. As for that you need a living person (in a romantic way) to make you happy, that is definitely untrue. No one can "make" you happy. You have to find that happiness with or without a significant other. There are many, many people who don't marry or date and they do have happy and fulfilled lives. Some of them were monastics/nuns who were actually hermits because that is what God called them to be.

Oh,these people thinking they are dating God!Wake up!God can only be in our mind and soul,not by our side.Saying you are dating God is like saying you are dating an alien!Great artcle!

I can think of so many reasons to explain why thinking God is your boyfriend is wrong.You can't really feel happy only with God.You need a living person to make you happy.Great article!

Ok,you are single and happy.What do you need God for then?How does he makes you happy?Don't you need a real person to feel love?I'm not saying that loving God is wrong,it's wrong if you think you're dating God.