I just pulled an old bible off my bookshelf and came across a post-it note I’d stuck in the back with this sentence on it

the goal is holiness not marriage

Honestly, I can’t remember when I wrote it. I assume it’s something I heard someone else say and wanted to remember. I have no idea who said it. 

I like it. Not because I’m against marriage (I’m not!) but because as Christians we should all be for holiness. Even, or perhaps especially, as a Christian it’s easy to feel like the goal of life is to be married, to buy into the idea that I’ll somehow be more complete if I get married. It’s also easy for other to perpetuate that belief (though probably unintentionally). But marriage is not the goal. Holiness is. 

But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all do, for it written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy’. 1 Peter 1:15-16