The sonnet “The Single Shines, Though Judged, with Heart So Bright, Serving God in Pure Delight” explores the experience of single individuals in a church often centered on families. It portrays married couples and their children filling the pews with harmonious praise, while singles, though present, face subtle misjudgments—assumptions they lack fulfillment or reject love. Yet, drawing from 1 Corinthians 7:32-34, where Paul writes, “The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord… the unmarried woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit,” the poem celebrates singleness as a joyful, unbound state. Free from earthly ties, singles shine with a radiant, delighted heart, boldly serving God and praising Him with unshackled devotion, despite the church’s focus on family life.

In hallowed halls where kith and kin unite,
The wedded throng with children raise their song,
Their prayers ascend in harmony so bright,
Yet single souls amid them still belong.
The flock may muse, with murmurs soft and sly,
That lone hearts miss the joys of love’s embrace,
Their merry choice, by error’s tale passed by,
Seen dim or dull through folly’s fleeting gaze.
But Paul proclaimed the unbound heart’s delight,
No earthly tie to dim its radiant flame,
In freedom bold, to God’s own will so light,
They soar unyoked, His glory to acclaim.
Though churches cheer the brood with warm accord,
The single shines, a joy to praise the Lord.