Getting Naked Later

Kate Hurley

Description

Will I always be lonely if I end up alone? You thought you'd be married by now, but you're not. Even though your friends in relationships love to tell you that singleness is a gift, this gift comes with its share of fear, grief, and still-to-be-answered prayers. Life coach and singer-songwriter Kate Hurley has been there, and now she encourages you to open yourself to new opportunities and relationships of all varieties. Getting Naked Later will help you find family in your friends, church, and communitystop viewing the pursuit of a partner as a formula that demands a solutionhand over control of your life to God, finding peace in the knowledge that He has a plan for you You don't need to give up on romance, but you also don't need to live on standby, expecting someone else to give your life meaning. Learn how to stop waiting and start embracing your liferight where you are. This is an expanded edition of the previously released bookCupid is a Procrastinator.

Informations

• Publié par: Harvest House Publishers
• Date de parution: 07 juillet 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780736978347
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS
EUGENE, OREGON
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version , NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Verses marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version . Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Verses marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible , 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
Cover by Faceout Studios
Cover art by Tim Green/Faceout Studios
Interior design by Rockwell Davis
Published in association with the literary agency of WordServe Literary Group, Ltd., www.wordserveliterary.com .
Getting Naked Later
Previously published as Cupid Is a Procrastinator
Copyright 2013 by Kate Hurley
Published by Harvest House Publishers
Eugene, Oregon 97408
www.harvesthousepublishers.com
ISBN 978-0-7369-7833-0 (pbk.)
ISBN 978-0-7369-7834-7 (eBook)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Hurley, Kate, 1975- author.
Title: Getting naked later : making sense of the unexpected single life / Kate Hurley.
Other titles: Cupid is a procrastinator
Description: Eugene, Oregon : Harvest House Publishers, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references. | Summary: If you re dating, waiting, and feeling frustrated, Kate Hurley will help you navigate the path of singleness as you grieve your unmet expectations and learn to open your heart and life to the unforeseen possibilities of a different kind of love story - Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019060178 (print) | LCCN 2019060179 (ebook) | ISBN 9780736978330 (paperback) | ISBN 9780736978347 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Single people-Religious life. | Christian women-Religious life.
Classification: LCC BV4596.S5 H87 2020 (print) | LCC BV4596.S5 (ebook) | DDC 248.8086/52-dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019060178
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019060179
All rights reserved. No part of this electronic publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means-electronic, mechanical, digital, photocopy, recording, or any other-without the prior written permission of the publisher. The authorized purchaser has been granted a nontransferable, nonexclusive, and noncommercial right to access and view this electronic publication, and purchaser agrees to do so only in accordance with the terms of use under which it was purchased or transmitted. Participation in or encouragement of piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of author s and publisher s rights is strictly prohibited.
Contents
Foreword by Jill Monaco
Preface: Ghost Ship
Introduction: Do I Really Need a Minivan in the Game of Life?
1. If You Can t Marry Em, Write a Book about Em
2. Kate: The Musical
3. The Rant Chapter
4. The Lonely Doll
5. The Trouble with Expectations
6. Confession, Reality TV, and the Space in Between
7. The Case for Thankfulness
8. The Great Name Changer
9. What Singles Wish Married People Knew
10. What Married People Wish Singles Knew
11. What Divorced People Wish Everybody Knew
12. Throw Away Your List (Or Just Rewrite It)
13. 90s Dating Gone Bad
14. Hold the Ones You Love
15. Pity Parties and Prodigals
16. How to Build Your Own Family, Part 1: Giving Yourself to Others
17. How to Build Your Own Family, Part 2: Living in Community
18. Thirty, Flirty, and Fertile
19. The Pheromone Adventures
20. The Deepest Love Story
Afterword
Group Study Guide
Notes
Thank You
About the Author
About the Publisher
Foreword
I f someone had told me in my twenties that I d still be waiting on marriage and kids in my fifties, I would have properly rebuked them. But as the decades passed, I had to stumble along the unbeaten path and figure out how to embrace the goodness of God amid unfulfilled desires. I did that by surrounding myself with others who were aimlessly trying to make sense of singleness too.
As I read this book, I wished I d known Kate Hurley sooner. She has given this generation an indispensable gift. She offers a humble and bold kind of insight for the Christian single who desires marriage.
Kate shares her heart in a way that will melt yours. I especially love how she makes you feel seen and understood as she accurately highlights how our faith is challenged by our circumstances. She draws us in with her humor and poignant experiences and leaves us with a longing to know God more. She helps us see a God who pursues us, cries with us, and is present with us during some of the most confusing and disappointing years. You know she has pored over Scripture for personal revelation as she teaches biblical truths that bring a deeper understanding of the love of God.
She shows us her deep longing for a mate, her fear of never being a mom, her willingness to wrestle with God, and her temptation to throw pity parties. And she even reveals her must-have-in-a-mate list! Because she writes with such vulnerability and authenticity, I found myself unable to put the book down until I knew how she met with God through one of the episodes that resembled something out of Friends .
Take the title of this book, for instance. Getting Naked Later reminds us that she is not afraid to go where others have been unwilling to go before. She addresses the fallacies of courtship, the chemistry in attraction, and the realities of marriage. You will walk away feeling as though she read your journal and gave you the best big sister advice. Instead of avoiding the tough topics, she dives in and addresses the frustrations of living a prolonged single life. She falls on her sword and reveals the raw details of personal mishaps but always comes back to the confidence she found in Jesus.
Even if you feel you ve missed your best dating years, the message in the pages of this book will remind you that God is faithful, his plans are as good as he is, and there is abundant life in the season of waiting.
Kate is that funny, wise, and honest friend we all want in our lives. So go to your favorite comfy spot, grab a journal and a cup of java. Be prepared to cry, be comforted, and challenged as you make sense of the unexpected single life.
-Jill Monaco
Speaker, relationship coach,
and author of Freedom Coach Model
Preface
Ghost Ship
F or many years now, I have spent my life on the shore, watching, waiting.
Like a million stories told through a hundred generations, I was searching the horizon, looking for someone to come home to me. A companion to walk with. A witness to my life.
I imagined that we would meet on the shore in a glorious homecoming. It would be the moment that all the minutes before had led up to, the moment that in all the minutes after we would never forget.
We would walk hand in hand down the road marked out for us. And when we reached our destination, we would build up our love story around us like a warm shelter.
But years passed. No matter how hard I looked, no matter how fervently I prayed, I did not see that ship coming in. I clenched my cold hands and continued watching on the waterfront, dreaming of the beautiful phantom life that was not mine.
I stood shivering on the shore for a long time, until I realized that the ship, the parallel existence that I had hoped to start living long ago, was a ghost ship. It was perfect, but only because it was elusive. It was beautiful, but only because it was not really there.
I am cold now. I am ready to go somewhere that will hide me from the storm. And so I have a choice-to stay here and watch or to step away from the waiting. Perhaps for a little while, perhaps for the rest of my life. I have a choice to turn my head from the sea and take a slow walk toward a home that I can build for myself right now, today. A decision that will be a beginning and an ending all at once.
The road will be unspeakably beautiful and sometimes painful, just like the journey I would have walked in my parallel life. It will be full of love and full of loneliness, just as it would have been on the sister ship that I never got to ride.
In the end, the path I walk on might not lead me to a home with the arms of a husband or the laughter of children, a reality that may always be difficult for me.
But I can still put flowers in a vase so I can remember small, beautiful things. I can still bake bread and hear laughter around the table. I can still press my face against the windowpane, welcoming the lonely traveler home.
I can wait for that ghost ship forever, or I can build a place where I can rest. A shelter that is heavy with hope, but tempered with acceptance. It will probably never be easy. The longing may never go away. But perhaps God will teach me how to long and let go at the very same time.
One day, someone might knock on my door and sit down with me, warming his hands by the fire I have built. And we may grow to love each other. But if he never comes, my life will still be beautiful, because I have chosen to make it that way.
In the end, I don t want to live in a parallel life that will disappear if I try to touch it. I want to walk out the tangible story that God has set before me today.
Even if I never find the love story that I anticipated, I might find a love story that I didn t expect. A different kind of love story.
A story that leads me home. 1
Introduction
Do I Really Need a Minivan in the Game of Life?
I was playing cards with my little friend Isabella the other day. We were playing Old Maid.
You know the game. You each have a set of cards. You draw from the other player and lay down the pairs that you find. Twos, twos, twos. There is anticipation every time a card is drawn from the other player s hand. Who will pair up next?
Another pair, and