Girl Meets Kingdom: From the Wilderness to the Promised Land

By Kristyl J. Garrison

We hear about the "happily ever after" when a woman gets married, but what about the happily ever before she gets married? What are women doing or not doing in their single season that creates the marriages we see today?

I searched for years to find the answer to my prayer. I prayed for a man that would not leave me or fo

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trilogy Christian Publishing
• Release date: Jun 28, 2023
• ISBN: 9798887386201

Kristyl J. Garrison

From single and ready to mingle to single and content. Kristyl never thought she would achieve this level of contentment before marriage. Does she still desire marriage, absolutely, but she desires God so much more. Dating, ghosting, lying, cheating, heartbreaks, and disappointments led Kristyl to seek God for answers because she didn't understand why her love life felt hopeless. While seeking God for answers, she discovered He was the answer. Her life hasn't been the same since.

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Girl Meets

Kingdom

From the

Wilderness

to the

Promised Land

Kristyl J. Garrison

Girl Meets Kingdom: From the Wilderness to the Promised Land

Trilogy Christian Publishers

A Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Trinity Broadcasting Network

2442 Michelle Drive | Tustin, CA 92780

Copyright © 2023 by Kristyl J. Garrison 

Scripture quotations marked (niv) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (esv) is adapted from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. All rights reserved.

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Scripture quotations marked (amp) are taken from the Amplified® Bible, Copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked (nkjv) are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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Trilogy Disclaimer: The views and content expressed in this book are those of the author and may not necessarily reflect the views and doctrine of Trilogy Christian Publishing or the Trinity Broadcasting Network.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN: 979-8-88738-619-5 | ISBN: 979-8-88738-620-1

Introduction

OK Cupid, Match, POF, Hinge, and my favorite…Bumble; all have been utilized by me at some point in the last three years of my life. I’m what you would consider a connoisseur of online dating sites. It was a quick way for me to screen the prospects before going out with them. I would read their profile and scroll through the photos. If they interested me enough and it did not appear they were looking for a hook up, I would give them a chance. Dating became my social life because I was matching with so many prospects. It seemed harmless; just going out and probably not seeing each other again after a few dates because someone decided to ghost the other. But I started noticing a pattern. I would get ghosted a lot and I took it very personally.

Why did I feel the constant need to be on those dating sites and why did it wreck me so much when the person stopped talking to me or ghosted me? I didn’t find the answer to that question until early 2021 when I decided to completely surrender my will for God’s will, deny myself, pick up the cross, and follow Jesus. I realized that what I was doing was not working. I was lacking something but didn’t know what. What I was looking for, I was not finding. It was time for me to try Jesus. I mean really try Jesus. I expected life to be easy from there. Little did I know I was about to enter the most difficult season of my life, The Wilderness.

The wilderness completely stripped me of everything. The season broke me down and built me up. This season brought out of me what I didn’t know I had. Most importantly, I discovered this hidden treasure, God’s kingdom. From reading His Word, I discovered that we could experience God’s kingdom on earth. From reading and meditating on His Word, I learned who my Heavenly Father really is. I learned what the Holy Spirit really is and what He empowers me with. I started hearing from God and found the answers to my prayers and cries.

The missing piece was not a husband or kids, money, etc. It was my Heavenly Father, Jesus, and The Holy Spirit… all working together as one. God’s kingdom is better than any man, car, money, job, or house. What if I told you, it’s possible to still have all these things? Seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added onto you. This doesn’t mean act like you love God and is doing His will so He can bless you, but really seek God with your whole heart without expecting something in return.

At twenty-nine years old, why am I just now coming to this conclusion? How come I didn’t know this sooner? How did I finally find this out? Everyone has a story; stories are meant to be told and reach people. You aren’t reading this book by chance; this is part of God’s plan.

Take a journey with me down memory lane to Girl Meets Kingdom.

I pray you are blessed by my story, and it pushes you closer to Christ.

Chapter 1

My Husband Prayer

If you asked me a few years ago where I’d see myself at the age I am now, I would say married. I felt I had a high chance with how much I used dating sites. I wasn’t going on dates because I liked being a serial dater, but how else would men know that I exist and am available if I’m always at home? I was simply trying to come across a godly man that God would approve of. Every time I thought I found a good man; it would end abruptly. Either they would ghost me, or I would sometimes have to do the ghosting. Literally, these men would have God Fearing in their profile but wanted to do all the ungodly things that showed they feared God very little. I guess God Fearing didn’t apply to the area of premarital sex. I was standing firm on my commitment to abstaining until marriage this time around, but this was a huge turn off to men…even Christian men. I would come across a guy that I thought was different, but after the third or fourth date, I guess they couldn’t keep living a lie that they were willing to wait until marriage, or maybe the flesh got the best of them. Every now and then, I would come across a guy that seemed to be interested in a serious relationship. That would last maybe two or three months top. On the other side, I would occasionally meet men that were extremely serious and ready to marry me the next day. These men knew absolutely nothing about me beyond being attracted to me and I seemed like a good woman.

I also didn’t limit my dating to men my age or ethnicity. Still didn’t work, so can’t blame it on age or dating within your race. How hard could it be to find a decent man. He didn’t have to be a ten in the looks category, just decent to look at. I like to think I am a good catch. I’m a godly woman, kind, generous, ambitious, intelligent, feminine, and I’m not bad to look at. I even thought it was because I have a child. My son was over the age of six at this point and I don’t come with baby father drama; we have a great coparenting relationship. I made it clear on my profile; I have a child. So, I don’t believe that was ever an issue, at least no one ever complained to me. I won’t get too much into my marriage and divorce, but I know now that unfortunately, divorce happens when you are not in alignment with God’s will. We married at the tender age of twenty. Not knowing a thing about what marriage is, but we thought we did. Or maybe we were just trying to do the right thing and get married instead of shacking up.

We were encouraged to get married, so that’s what we did. It was spur of the moment. We had our child out of wedlock, we committed the ultimate sin in the eyes of the church. So, we felt we were doing the right thing by quickly getting married. Correcting our wrong. Not knowing that that sin would eventually lead to another sin, divorce. I didn’t know about waiting on God and I didn’t understand that God does bring people together for a purpose. If I’m honest, I thought marriage was going to cure my loneliness. It absolutely did not…which led to serial dating. WHY IS IT SO HARD TO FIND A GOOD MAN? Why is this so hard, God? This is what I used to cry out to the Lord many nights after being let down by yet another guy. When will it be different Lord? When will I find the one or be found by the one? This went on for about three years, then I met this doctor. Before I met the doctor, a few things took place leading me to believe He Was the One.

In January 2020, after being stood up on my birthday, I decided to write a prayer to God for my future husband. I’ve heard in the past people doing it and having success. Even my coworker that was single for seven years did it and met her now husband. I was very specific in details about the qualities and characteristics I wanted my husband to possess. My list consisted of what I thought God would want in a spouse for me. I didn’t put superficial things in there like being at least six feet tall, dark, with a low hair cut… although I would not be upset if God took it upon Himself to make that happen. Most important to me was meeting someone that was willing to abstain from sex until marriage. I would pray the prayer daily. Then, I came across an audio book titled When God Writes Your Love Story by Eric and Leslie Ludy. This book gave me a new insight on trusting God in that area of my life. So, I put my husband prayer at the top rack of my closet with a pen, symbolic of me relinquishing possession to God to write my love story.

About two months later, I got back on a dating site because I felt I was in a better space in my life. This is when I met this wonderful doctor to be. He was my age, tall, handsome, God fearing, kind, and completing a residency to become a surgeon. I won’t disclose his name, so let’s call him Mike. Mike checked all the boxes on my list, emphasis on my list. I could not believe that this prayer worked so quickly, and God FINALLY blessed me with what I asked for. We met right when the pandemic started, therefore, we couldn’t see each other much…or that’s at least the excuse I would give myself when we didn’t see each other. We’ll talk about that in a moment. The few times we did see each other were enough