Sharon Adetola

  Every woman who has ever sat across from a man she likes has asked herself some version of the same question: is this something I should be concerned about, or is this just something he's still working on? It's a fair question. No one you date is finished. Every man carries unfinished places — habits he hasn't broken yet, blind spots he hasn't seen yet, edges that still need smoothing. If you waited for a flawless man, you'd wait forever, because he doesn't exist. So the goal was never to find someone without flaws. The goal is to learn how to read what a flaw is actually telling you. That's the discernment so many women skip past — not because they're careless, but because no one ever taught them the difference between a growth area and a red flag . They look similar on the surface. They feel similar in the moment. But they lead to two very different futures. Growth Areas: Awareness in Motion A growth area is something he knows about and is a...

Marriage brings two lives together in many ways—emotionally, spiritually, practically, and financially. Yet financial unity in marriage doesn't actually begin on the wedding day. It begins much earlier, in the habits, attitudes, and decisions you develop while you're still single. For a single Christian woman, preparing for marriage isn't only about becoming emotionally ready to love someone well or learning what kind of husband you hope to have. It can also mean learning how to steward what God has already placed in your hands. You don't need to be wealthy. You don't need to have everything figured out. And you certainly don't need a perfect financial record before you're "ready" for marriage. But developing healthy financial habits now can help you enter marriage with greater wisdom, honesty, and peace. Here are a few areas worth paying attention to while you're still single. 1. Practice Giving Before You Have "Extra" Generosity can...

Time passing is not the same thing as healing happening. Sometimes we assume that because something happened years ago, we must be over it by now. The relationship ended. The betrayal happened. The disappointment passed. We moved to a new city, started a new job, met new people, or simply entered a different season of life. But time can create distance from a wound without actually healing it. And this matters when you're preparing for marriage. Marriage has a way of bringing the parts of us that haven't been dealt with into closer view. The fears we thought we'd outgrown, the trust issues we thought were gone, the resentment we thought we'd released, and the beliefs we formed because of past experiences can all influence the way we love. That doesn't mean you need to be perfectly healed before you can be loved or married. It means it's worth becoming honest about what you're carrying. Healing isn't about becoming a woman who has never been hurt. It'...

Emotional readiness isn't the absence of feelings — it's the ability to carry them well. Here's what it tends to look like in a woman preparing for marriage. She can sit with discomfort without needing to fix it immediately. Marriage will bring seasons that can't be rushed to resolution. She knows her triggers and owns them. She doesn't expect a husband to read her mind or manage her moods for her. She can receive correction without spiraling. Feedback lands as information, not as rejection. She regulates instead of reacts. A raised voice or a hard conversation doesn't derail her entire week. None of this is about becoming unfeeling — it's about becoming steady. I walk through a full emotional-readiness framework in "Am I Ready for Marriage?" Get your copy here → If you want to grow in this alongside other women, find us at @temiandsharon — Prepared Bride Academy was built for exactly this kind of preparation.

There's a subtle but powerful shift that happens when a woman moves from "waiting" to "preparing." Waiting can feel passive — like life is on pause until something external changes. Preparing is active. It says: I trust God with the timing, and I'm stewarding the time I have. This shift changes how you pray — from "when, God?" to "what are you doing in me right now, God?" It changes how you spend your time — building instead of stalling. And it changes how you carry yourself — with peace instead of striving, because your hope isn't pinned to an arrival date; it's rooted in a Person who has never once been late. Preparing doesn't mean pretending you don't long for marriage. It means bringing that longing to God honestly, and letting Him use this season to shape you into the woman who will actually thrive in what's ahead. "My Marriage Vision Journal" is a practical companion for exactly this shift — from...

A prophetic journal isn't about predicting the future — it's about recording what God is saying, so your faith has something to stand on. Here are four things worth writing down. 1. Scriptures God highlights to you in this season. Verses that stood out unexpectedly — in a sermon, in your quiet time, in conversation. Write them down with the date. 2. Impressions and confirmations in prayer. If something feels like it's from God, record it, even if you're not sure yet. Time will help clarify what was Him. 3. Your own honest hopes for your future marriage.  Bring them before God and let Him shape, refine, or confirm them. 4. Moments of God's faithfulness in the waiting. Answered prayers, unexpected provision, timing that could only have been Him. These become anchors you can return to on harder days. This kind of guided, prophetic journaling is exactly what "My Marriage Vision Journal" was built for. Get your copy here → For community as you w...

 Faith isn't passive. It isn't simply waiting for something to happen — it's actively partnering with what God has already spoken, even before you can see it. That's what it means to activate your faith in singleness. Preparing early isn't anxious striving. It's the opposite — it's trusting God enough to steward this season well, rather than treating it as empty time to simply survive until marriage arrives. A woman who prepares early isn't rushing marriage into existence; she's stewarding the here and now so that whenever it comes, she's ready to receive it with both hands. This looks like: growing in character now, not waiting until there's someone to practice patience on. Healing wounds now, rather than carrying them unexamined into a future relationship. Praying and journaling now, so your faith has a record to stand on later. Faith activated in singleness isn't wasted. It becomes the foundation everything else is built on. ...

 There's something powerful about praying Scripture over your future — it roots your hope in God's Word rather than your own imagination. Here are seven verses worth returning to as you pray over your future marriage and household. Joshua 24:15 — "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 — on the strength of two joined together, and a cord of three strands. Proverbs 3:5-6 — trusting the Lord to direct your path, including this one. Psalm 127:1 — "Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain." Ephesians 5:25 — Christ's sacrificial, self-giving love as the pattern for marriage. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 — love that is patient, kind, and endures. Malachi 2:15 — the call to seek godly offspring, guarding the spirit of the home. Praying these isn't a formula for guaranteeing an outcome — it's a discipline of aligning your heart with God's, so that whatever He builds, it's built on Him. ...

A marriage vision journal isn't a wish list. It's not simply a place to describe your dream husband, wedding, home, or family. For a faith-driven single woman, it can become a spiritual practice—a place where you bring your desires to God, allow Him to shape them, and pay attention to what He is teaching you in this season. You don't need to be dating or engaged to begin. Your single season can be a beautiful time to reflect, pray, and prepare your heart for the kind of marriage you hope to build. Here's how to start. Step 1: Begin With Prayer, Not a Pen Before you start writing, pray. Ask God what He wants to show you about your current season and your desires for marriage. You could simply pray: "Lord, show me what You want me to learn in this season. Shape my desires according to Your will and prepare me for whatever You have ahead." This helps your journal become more than a collection of wishes. You're inviting God into the process. Step 2: Write Down...

It is easy to pray for your future husband in terms of the things you hope he will be. "Lord, let him be kind." "Let him love You." "Let him be successful." "Let him be emotionally mature." "Let him be the kind of man I've always dreamed of." There is nothing wrong with bringing those desires to God. But intentional prayer for your future husband can go deeper than making a list of qualities you hope to find. You can pray for the man you haven't met yet while also asking God to prepare you for the kind of marriage you're praying for. Because marriage isn't simply about finding the right person. It is about two people becoming capable of building something together. And while you don't know exactly who your future husband will be, you can pray for his relationship with God, his character, his wisdom, his relationships, his purpose—and for the grace to become the kind of wife who can love, support, challenge and partn...

                      Every season carries blindspots—things we can't quite see about ourselves until someone or something holds up a mirror. Sometimes we discover them through a difficult conversation. Sometimes through disappointment. Sometimes through prayer. And sometimes God allows a quiet season to expose things we would have been too distracted to notice otherwise. Singleness can be one of those seasons. It can be a season of freedom, growth, discovery, friendship, service, and deepening your relationship with God. But it can also be a season where certain patterns become easier to hide because you don't yet have the daily pressures and responsibilities that come with building a life with another person. Marriage won't automatically expose every blindspot. But it can certainly make some of them more visible. That's why preparing for marriage shouldn't only mean asking, "What kind of husband am I praying for?" It can also mean...

 Before any woman says "I do," there's a quieter question worth asking first: Am I saying yes from wholeness, or from waiting? Here are four questions I encourage every woman I mentor to sit with, prayerfully, before marriage — not after. 1. Have I actually healed, or have I just moved on? Time passing isn't the same as healing happening. Old wounds that go unaddressed don't disappear in marriage — they usually just find a new person to test them on. 2. Do I know what I actually believe about submission, leadership, and partnership — or am I borrowing someone else's definition? These words get thrown around loosely. Know, from Scripture and from prayer, what you actually believe a Christ-centered marriage looks like, before you're navigating it in real time. 3. Can I see this person's character clearly, or am I explaining away what I see? Discernment gets clouded by hope. Ask God for eyes to see clearly, not eyes that only see what you want t...

So many of us grew up dreaming about the wedding day. The dress. The flowers. The music. Walking down the aisle. Seeing the man we've prayed for standing at the altar. The photographs, the celebration, the beautiful beginning of a new chapter. There is nothing wrong with dreaming about those things. A wedding is beautiful. It is worth celebrating. It is a significant moment in a woman's life. But a wedding lasts a day. A marriage lasts far beyond the photographs. And somewhere along the way, I think many women realize that preparing for the wedding and preparing for marriage are two very different things. A wedding requires planning. A marriage requires character. A wedding requires a venue, a dress, invitations and a budget. A marriage requires communication, humility, forgiveness, patience, wisdom, emotional maturity and a willingness to keep choosing love when life doesn't look like the beautiful picture you imagined. And I have found that the women who are intentional a...