I have another friend with whom I have a weekly phone call and prayer time. She's married and has shared very openly about her struggle with infertility. It's remarkable how similar it is to singleness. For example, I've told her how I feel like I'm so different from most everyone else in our church because of being single. And she's told me of how she feels the same because of not having children when others her age have families.

Over time we've heard the growth in each other's lives as we keep turning our focus back to God. I've listened to her become so settled with the thought that she might never have children of her own. She's celebrated hearing me say that a specific time of growth in my relationship with God meant more to me than knowing if I'll ever marry.

I've become convinced through my reading of His Word that God sees me and knows the specific situation of my life. I've become convinced of His specific plan for my life, and that it's not a plan of neglect or forgetfulness on His part.

And I've become deeply convinced of the truth of Ephesians 6:12 - "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world-forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of darkness in the heavenly places." (NASB) In other words, our struggle is against the spiritual forces of evil that will do everything they can to distract us from knowing, loving, and serving God.

One of the worst traps I fell into over the years was focusing on marital status - mine and others. I would mentally label people as they walked up to or past me, basically announcing their marital status in my mind. Of course most of them were married, and I would almost spit the word out in my thoughts, "Married!"

And then one day quite a while ago I read Ephesians 3:14 - "For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one, and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall,"

I was immediately deeply convicted of having put up a dividing wall between myself and married people, and could see that it truly was a barrier. So I began to pray for God to destroy the dividing wall.

I believe part of the fruit of that prayer is being able to recognize more of the "same struggle, different details" aspects of everyone's lives. This has helped me to pray well for my friends and others, regardless of how different their lives are from mine.

"Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world." (1 Peter 5:8-10 NASB)

Please, the next time you're tempted to think "Nobody understands my situation," ask God to show you someone who needs the prayers you can pray from the heart because of your situation. Based on the truth of God's Word, there will be someone in His body who is going through the "same struggle, different details."