On a campus with a saying “ring by spring” it can be hard to balance a healthy view of singleness, dating and marriage.
On Tuesday April 5, “Love in Real Life” was held in the A.J. Staples room. Created by Whitney Keep, resident adviser of Lancer Arms, the event promoted “experiencing God’s love in every season of life.”
The outdoor courtyard was adorned with decorations including stories of California Baptist University woman’s personal hopes and struggles in love. Tables held various sweet treats, lemonade and water for guests to snack on before and after the event. A resource table provided a helpful recommended book list for women, pamphlets from the CBU Counseling Center as well as a letter titled “Longing for Love” by Elisabeth Elliot.
The night began with a special presentation for “Breaking Through Young Woman’s Conference”. The conference is Saturday, April 30 at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. It is free for all attendees.
The speakers for the night included Merea Price, resident director of Simmons Hall, Roxanna Grimes and Jeff Mooney, associate professor of Old Testament and his wife Angela.
Throughout the night, topics such as singleness, marriage, fulfillment, satisfaction, pain and redemption were discussed.
For those struggling or even rejoicing in their season of singleness, Price spoke about her journey of singleness.
“It has not always been a ministry that I’ve surrendered too,” Price said.
“But God is sovereign even in my singleness and I must reconcile that within my heart.”Her advice to women whether single, dating or married was that of preaching the Gospel to yourself.
“I need to preach the Gospel to myself. Instead of listening to myself, preaching to myself,” Price said.
The Mooneys spoke on their journey through love, the roles of a husband and predominately the roles of a wife.
“Marriage would be a crucible for my sanctification,” Angela Mooney said. “Instead of working on finding Mr. Right, I should have been focused on becoming Mrs. Right.”
They spoke on submissiveness and what that looked like in the life of a married woman. Typically, being a submissive wife conjures thoughts of a woman who blindly follows her husband, not voicing her opinion or actively participating in her marriage. On the contrary, the Mooneys shared how submissiveness requires strength.
“To be truly submissive, you have to be truly strong. As a follower of Christ, you have already signed up for selflessness,” said Angela Mooney. “In marriage, you are signing up to be his helpmate, participating in the ongoing structure of the home.”
Grimes added to the conversation with an important emphasis on identity. Sharing her personal testimony, Grimes taught that our identity belongs in Christ alone and must be rooted within Him.
“Hurt people hurt others, abandoned people abandon others, people with no identity do not care about the identity of others,” Grimes said.
God has created us, shaped us and formed us so that we may worship and praise Him. There is no other way that we will find satisfaction or fulfillment in this world. We are to surrender to Him.
“I pour out all of me, my stench as well as my perfumes,” Grimes said.
The night closed out with a short question and answer session allowing the women of CBU to ask the speakers about heart pressing issues and struggles within their own hearts.
For more information on the Breaking Through Young Woman’s Conference, please visithttp://breakingthrough.cccm.com.
