If I cannot be a mother or father, what am I supposed to be?

1 Corinthians 7:7I [the apostle Paul] wish everyone were single, just as I am. Yet each person has a special gift from God, of one kind or another.

1 Timothy 1:2I [Paul] am writing to Timothy, my true son in the faith.

The apostle Paul never had children through marriage, yet he had many spiritual children. Paul even called young Timothy his “true son in the faith.” Many children need mother and father figures, mentors who can guide them in the faith. Perhaps you, like Paul, are being called to be a different kind of parent.

Luke 2:36-38Anna, a prophet, was also there in the Temple. . . . Her husband died when they had been married only seven years. Then she lived as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the Temple but stayed there day and night, worshiping God with fasting and prayer. She came along just as Simeon was talking with Mary and Joseph, and she began praising God. She talked about the child to everyone who had been waiting expectantly for God to rescue Jerusalem.

Anna’s life changed dramatically after her husband died at a young age, and the Bible never tells us whether she had any children. However, we do know that Anna prayed and prophesied faithfully and became one of the first people to spread the good news about Jesus. Anna’s plans for her life may have crumbled, but God’s plans for Anna were never shaken.

John 21:21-22Peter asked Jesus, “What about him, Lord?” Jesus replied, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? As for you, follow me.”

1 Corinthians 12:5-6There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us.

1 Corinthians 12:14-17If the ear says, “I am not part of the body because I am not an eye,” would that make it any less a part of the body? If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear? Or if your whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything?

“What about him, Lord?” “What about her, Lord?” It can be easy to compare ourselves to others and wonder why God didn’t give us a life like theirs. We may even see people adopting and feel guilty that we don’t feel called to do the same. You may not be filling the role of a parent, but that doesn’t mean that you have less value or that God isn’t working through you. Let God use you where he has placed you, even if it’s not where you expected to be. You were placed here for a reason, and God will use you to bless people because of it.