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Life in the Single Lane, subtitled Accepting God's Gift In This Season of Your Life, is addressed to young single women who live in a world of couples and long to marry the man of their dreams and raise a family for the glory of God. If you are looking for wisdom from an older, more experienced woman, this is not the book for you. But if you want something from a young woman who has a good head on her shoulders and wisdom beyond her years and who can identify with your daughters, then Aprill Brunson is your gal. Far from preachy, the book is written like an informal letter to a friend (complete with smileys!) or a conversation over a Coke or coffee. Brunson has drawn upon the wisdom of those older and wiser, and the book is sprinkled liberally with Scripture verses and quotes from others.
Godliness with contentment is the underlying theme running throughout the book. The desire for marriage and children is a godly desire, but if that is not part of the picture right now, it is easy to doubt His wisdom and love. Singleness is a gift from God, as is marriage. The choice is to accept it -- or reject it and struggle with selfishness and a lack of contentment. The book is full of practical suggestions for doing just that. For instance, what does it mean to "wait for the Lord's timing"? Aprill offers the following acrostic:
Withstanding temptation to put my dreams above God's
Accepting without question the gift for this season of my life
Investing my gifts -all of them-using, not burying
Transforming work God will do in my life when I really on Him totally for everything
Rather than being passive or following selfish or trivial pursuits, single young ladies should focus on ministering within their sphere, doing things others cannot do because of other commitments.
Emphasis is given to the importance of becoming "Miss Right" as opposed to finding "Mr. Right." God will bring Mr. Right along in His perfect time. A young woman's job is to become the woman God intended for to be, to seek Him with her whole heart, and to strive to live her life in holiness and righteousness. The author recommends that a single young lady establish a list of qualifications for herself based on such passages as Proverbs 31 and Titus. Then she should make another list for what she is looking for in Mr. Right, based on the qualifications for an elder in 1 Timothy 3:2-7.
For those who are in a dating relationship, the author stresses the importance of the couple discussing ahead of time what is important and what isn't, making sure they have similar beliefs in not only doctrine and religious practice but also such things as whether or not to practice birth control or celebrate Christmas. It is far better to wait for the one God has for you than to jump at the first good man that comes along and then find out after you are married that there are serious issues of disagreement.
Life in the Single Lane gives Biblical examples of people who were abundantly blessed because they trusted in God's wisdom and waited on His timing. The author ties it all together by encouraging her readers to trust in Him, wait on Him, and rest content in Him. She wraps it up with a reminder that it will all happen "in God's ordained time and not one millisecond sooner."
The author exhorts readers to guard their purity at all costs. The book is perfect for the homeschooled girl whose parents want to protect her from the blatant immorality of the world and the frank and explicit nature of many such books on the market today. It is honest and forthright, yet it maintains purity of language and content. So it is valuable for even the youngest teen. It is equally valuable for the young woman long out of high school or even college, for the message is the same: trust God and wait for His timing and His best. It is an inexpensive little book that can be read together with mom or alone. All three of my daughters will appreciate and benefit from this book.
Product review by Willena Flewelling, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, LLC, September 2006
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