Last week, we talked about learning how to hear God concerning when you should get married. Today, I’ll show you how to recognize and harness God’s marital season for your life.
What Is Marital Season?
If you’re an African living in Africa, you most likely have heard the term “flower period” used to describe the time a young lady should get married. During this period, the nubile receives a lot of proposals from different suitors and she is advised to accept one of them because after the “flower period”, she may not be able to get married as the number of suitors interested in her will keep dwindling till there’s no one left.
Our people may be wrong in that assertion, but there truly is a “flower period” for both males and females when each individual is destined to meet and marry a partner. However, unlike the assertion, it doesn’t happen only once. This “flower period” is known as a “marital season”, and one can have up to ten or more marital seasons in a lifetime.
The duration for each marital season is uncertain, and the interval between one marital season and the next, varies. Hence, it is important to be aware, recognize, understand and harness your marital season.
How Can I Recognize My Marital Season?
A marital season, like the traditional “flower period”, is often characterized by an influx of suitors or members of the opposite gender noticing and paying more attention to you for marriage. Also, there’s often a deep desire to be married that precedes this physical observation of interest in you for marriage.
The desire for marriage referred to here, is not bordered on anxiety, pressure or desperation. Rather, it is rooted in the knowing that marriage is something you should be thinking about, working towards and getting into at this stage of your life. It doesn’t matter how young or old you are, if you’re single and you frequently find yourself thinking about marriage or desiring to have a partner, it is an indication of your marital season.
Now, this desire and heightened awareness for marriage doesn’t mean that you’ll get married in that year, (seasons are often not measured in the same calendar as years); it is an indication that it is the onset of your marital season and the first thing you should do is to start praying fervently about your marital destiny: your role as a spouse (husband or wife), for your future spouse (most likely someone you don’t know yet), your future in-laws, future kids, and every other thing related to the type of marriage and home you desire to have. It is important to start praying these prayers before you start “catching” feelings for anyone because it’s easy for our emotions to influence our prayers and affect our ability to hear God and obey Him.
This is also the time to invest in knowing and understanding more about relationships and marriage – from the right channels: books, teachings, trainings. The Facebook post below aptly summarizes this:
“There’s always a time in a man’s life when the desire to be married starts arising and becoming stronger. Talking from experience, I see it as God working in me both to will and do of his good pleasure. During such time, don’t fight it but rather embrace it.
But I must warn you, it’s not a sign of readiness but more like, “Start getting prepared, knowledge wise”. Read books, there’re lots of them. Buy and listen to tapes too. Put them in your phones just like you have WizKid songs and they’re adding no value, why not put things that matters to your destiny? Attend conferences online or offline, pay for it if need be. Most free stuffs are good but do not carry enough value. Also, at such meetings, you don’t just learn, you also network and connect.
Have a mentor/coach. Most times, you need someone to talk sense into you and walk you through your relationship journey. You’ll also be accountable to them. But most importantly, discover for yourself from the scriptures what God had already said concerning the marriage institution. There’re laid down principles. Marriage is not just about giving birth to children but more importantly, raising quality and godly children.
I must say too, having enough money saved up in the bank to lavish on a wedding does not make you ready for marriage. You’re 42 and she’s 34 does not make both of you ready either. Success in marriage is not a function of age but of what you know and ready to apply and a combination of other factors too.” – Ginikachi Edmund
How To Harness Your Marital Season
This article is already getting lengthy, and I’ll like to keep it short. So next week, we’ll continue from here. I’ll also shed more light on how you can discern God’s will and voice for your life.
Till then, remember to stay safe and stay connected to the only source of true Love – GOD.
