"What if the ultimate goal is to become more Christ-like?"

I am a bit surprised and find myself a little out of character that this verse has been on the back of my mind the entire day but I actually haven't been to the website at all till the time stamp shown here in the picture!  Well I'm sure this kind of thing has happened before, I just find the experience very ironic given the other things I have been praying about today is all...

So recently apart from realizing that life isn't always what you expect and the irony that apart from what a lot of people might have also thought, about how I am still at a 'living at home situation' even after these years of yearning to be in a different situation and slowing likely hardening my heart towards God as a result; I realize that life isn't what I expected, but "it's OK"... I would also like to believe that God made me lose a lot of the things I really wanted to keep in life in order to 'Exodus' my heart from the hard place it was likely in to bring it to the 'the rock' which is Christ and the Church and when I say church, I don't just mean believers in my current local church or people I know recently, I have now "un-suppressed" many memories of people Christ has brought into my life through various aspects of my journey, even those who have brought some degree of pain in my life and those who betrayed or rejected God's gift of loving grace in their lives.

I have also come to realize that given the very specific spiritual gift sets, my general interests and the people God often brings into my life that I tend to find more joy loving and ministering to, a part of me also feels 'the gift of marriage' will likely never be a part of my life; but I think my community can respect the way I love God, typically includes never seeking a spousal partner and that I have a healthy self-respecting viewpoint likewise on this manner then "I have not sinned" and I can be content in continuing to love God and others in spite of my ongoing social status in this regard.  There was also an element in a recent dream where I was a 'soldier dying in battle for the good of the team' which seems indicative potentially that my life is very much more literally representative of that of Christ which also could potentially also mean I won't ever live a physical/temporal life that fosters a good or Christ honoring context for me to raise children.

That's not to say that I won't one day potentially find joy in one day meeting someone who may also have either a very similar mindset/gifting towards life or one that is different yet very much complements my own in a way that can bring about that kind of union in a fruitful way that will be both unique and beautiful in God's eyes, I just don't see it right now or have had God reveal this to me and whoever that person is yet...Even if that person could potentially be a future version of someone I already know.

I continue to pray that through all of my experiences, God will continue to allow me to persevere in all things, trust in all things and most importantly love in all things.  As someone I know in ministry put it once: "To see God work through your circumstances..." or something along those lines.