Feeding the appetite for living

I was reading in "Shadow of the Almighty" tonight and this was an incredible quote I had to share, (written to Elizabeth Elliot from Jim in context of God leading them to wait to be married, and Jim going to Ecuador without her)
"We may imagine what it would be like to share a given event and feel loss at having to experience it alone, but let us not forget-that loss is imagined, not real. I imagine peaks-enjoyment when I think of doing things together, but let not the hoping for it dull the doing of it alone. What is, is actual-what might be simply is not, and I must not therefore query God as though He robbed me-of things that are not. Further, the things that are belong to us, and they are good, God-given, and enriched. Let not our longing slay the appetite of our living." -Jim Elliot
I think that is where we find ourselves alot of the time, wishing for the "used to be's" or "could have been's" so strongly that we miss out on the state God has placed us in RIGHT NOW. I talked with a good friend a few weeks ago and he said he counsels guys in his dorm so often that literally hunger after being married so much that they miss the place and station God has put them in right now. 1 Corinthians 7 is a chapter I have come to read alot over the past 2 years and Paul says marriage is not wrong (of course not, it's ordained by God!) but if a man CAN abide the way Paul did it is better for him!
I got a chance to talk with one of my best friends a few nights ago and she has been married for almost a year in June and she said something that the Lord really pricked my heart with. She absolutely LOVES her husband and their marriage but she said it is a big change in that once you are married, you belong to your husband...Christ still comes first, but marriage brings the partnership of you AND your spouse into that relationship you have with Christ. In a state of singleness, you have a very special time when it is just you and the Lord, only the two of you. Don't get me wrong, she wouldn't trade marriage for anything...but I found the Lord saying to me..."You are wishing away a precious time and if you don't treasure it, you will wake up one day to find it has passed." There is a verse in 1 Corinthians 7 that is my absolute favorite-it is verse 24, "Brethren, let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God."
The Lord will never leave me nor forsake me, and what stages He brings me to and through He will be a part of every single one..but what He has given me NOW is to be guarded and cherished! Paul said it, Jim Elliot said it...I want my life to be lived to the fullest in the state God has placed me in! He has the time table, and when He decides to move I will gladly move with Him, but if He ever moves to marriage, I do not want to walk down the aisle to that next stage in my life looking back with regrets that I wasted this one wishing for that one! This is "wherein I am called" and I want to abide with God fully-feeding the appetite for living the hilt right where He has placed me, all the while knowing that He is shaping, molding, and preparing me for the future.
I don't know what He has planned for me, but I know that I can trust Him enough to throw myself into His service right where He's placed me! Life is too short to live off longing for what He hasn't given me or may never give; I only need to abide with Him, and He will fulfill all my needs in His time.