When are you ready to enter a relationship?
1. You have to be ready to wait.
Yeah, I know. Waiting, shmaiting. But if you aren't ready to wait, you probably aren't ready to enter a relationship because:
"Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away."
-1 Corinthians 13: 4-8
Love is patient. If you truly love God, and your future husband, you'll do your best to wait patiently, especially since it's what God's Word says.
2. While you're waiting, you have to ground yourself in your relationship with God.
God wants a relationship with you more than anything, and He would rather you have a relationship with Him and be rejected by men than you date a bunch of different people and reject Him.
"So that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us."
-Acts 17:27
We should seek God, not boyfriends or husbands.
3. You also need to guard your heart.
There will be temptations during your journey of being single, while you're dating, and even when you're married. Your heart needs to be guarded so you don't fall into sexual immorality, lust, or idolatry.
"Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life."
- Proverbs 4: 23
As Jeremiah 17:9 says, "the heart is deceitful above all things." By protecting your heart, you protect yourself and others from its whims and desires that may be against God's Word.
4. Develop a skill set necessary to being a good wife.
This could include but isn't limited to, knowing how to take care of babies and kids, cook, and clean. Get a job, learn about finances, and learn how to be thrifty.
"Develop your business first before building your house."
-Proverbs 24: 27
Trust me, if you don't even know how to do at least one of those basic things that are listed above, you probably aren't ready to get married- whether you're a woman or a man.
Being prepared for who God wants you to marry isn't easy, but it's worth every bit of effort you put into it.