What's the purpose of singleness? It's dangerous to think of singleness simply as a period where you can exercise your freedom and independence from family ties. Even the Bible compares getting married to sticking your head inside a yoke. So why shouldn't you enjoy being single while it lasts and leave the bondage of getting married to future attention?
This is a terrible way of thinking that does more to equip a man for marriage than eating peanut butter prunes on a plaid sofa. If marriage stresses the muscles of commitment, communication, organization, establishing priorities, and complete dependence on others, than why would you spend your singleness years relaxing those muscles in order to exercise your freedom, independence, autonomy, etc.?
Think about the fact that every married person was single before they got married. God gives us a season to lay a solid foundation upon which we and our families can stand. This is a time to exercise those muscles which will be essential for marriage. Most importantly, it is a time to grow more in love with God and to establish a greater dependence on Him. Any athlete will tell you that training is hard, but necessary. Any soldier will tell you that boot camp is painful, but equipping. If you spend your time in the boot camp of singleness eating cracker jacks and counting how many licks it takes to get to the bottom of a blow pop, you will not be prepared to enter into the warzone of marriage. You may find the person on the other side of the marriage yoke to be the only one ready to pull their weight.
Utilize this time to prepare. Do this by growing more into the image of Christ, the husband of the Church. Also, begin to seek wisdom early. The first time you think about how you'd like to raise your kids should not be when your wife is already pregnant. As Solomon says in Proverbs, "Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom in the future" (19:20).
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