Happiness

I used to have a prayer corner in my living room. It was a beautiful little desk, dedicated to just prayer. It was in a windowless corner of my house, making it free from distractions. It wasn’t where I sat down to do any work or bookkeeping or any of the boring stuff that needs doing as well. It was purely my place to pray. I had a candle there I could light as a symbol of God’s presence. There was a stack of prayer books, bibles, devotionals to choose from if I needed inspiration. There was also a ‘board of inspiration’ on which were prayer request from friends and missionaries I supported, prayer letters, drawings, whatever inspired me to pray for someone or something. I regularly changed what was on there.

Sometimes it can seem like Christianity asks a lot of us. Yes, we get the assurance of salvation, our sins forgiven, and a wonderful relationship with Jesus, but then there’s all the extras. The lifestyle of purity, the commitment to loving community, the many, many meetings…

It has been said that you can’t keep doing the same thing and expect to get different results. When it comes to how we think meeting people should happen, a lot of us are pretty set in our ways. Take me, for example. My single life routine was pretty much going to work, then home, church, then home and repeat. I hung out with friends and went to parties here and there but that was pretty much it. I expected that if I was going to meet someone it would have to happen either at church (even though there were only a handful of men) or through one of my friends.

A friend of mine is about to join a Christian dating site (this one, as a matter of fact), and wanted advice on getting the most from online dating. ‘In your experience, HopefulGirl, what’s the key to success?’ she asked. I had no trouble giving her an answer…

I was speaking with someone recently, and although they were single and trusting God to bring them their life partner at some point, they were concerned that they sometimes self-sabotage. One of the reasons they gave was that they were not usually very friendly towards the few guys they met, especially if those guys were not quite ‘their type’.

January can be a tough month and, let’s face it, dating can be hard, especially if it feels like a long road for you. So if you’re feeling fed up, what can you do to increase your positivity and foster a happier outlook?

This year Christian Connection celebrates 20 years of bringing couples together. Mark & Jane met on CC in 2008 & tell us what’s happened since… Jane: I really wanted to meet a Christian man and had tried free Christian sites with no luck – I liked the way the site worked where it matched you […]

A lot can change in 20 years – especially the way people look for love. Back in the early days of the new millennium, it could take just as long to connect to the internet with dial-up as it does to create a profile. We set out with a simple idea: helping Christians meet other Christians beyond the walls of their local church. Since then thousands of couples have met through Christian Connection, and now, as we mark turning 20, more couples than ever before are meeting online all over the world.