You know I was reading this evening Gods word, and how He PREPARES things.
We say want to jump up and down and say “Lord I am ready to marry” or “I am ready to have a relationship” But God kindly smiles in love and says “Don’t You know Me enough by now, I never give things without PREPARATION”.
You see God needs to prepare our hearts, attitudes, irks and quirks, so that He can ENTRUST us with His dear daughter / son in Christ (our future wife / husband) He wants us to be able to cherish and care for them with the same love and affection that we have for Jesus, and so if our love for God is small, and our time with Him is little; then we must expect a bit more preparation.
You see before a harvest in the East, there must be preparation, first the soil is broken up and then it is refined ready for the seed. God may need to refine us a little more before giving to us a dear, beloved spouse to care for and cherish.

Mal 3:1 “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me”

We can so easily wants things now and find it so hard to wait.
But before God can give to us those Longings or desires or Answers to pray He often has to PREPARE us or PREPARE for us.
You see even the Lord Jesus needed to be PREPARED for by John the Baptist.
As for me I like gardening and I want to see a good crop. But to do so I need to PREPARE the ground so it will yield a good blessing.
It means a time of back ache and sweat, a time of preparation and the ground being broken up and weeded.
If I had not PREPARED then my crop would a lot less blessed.
God sometimes needs to do that to me and you. He wants to give us the Best but the best means for us to be PREPARED and that means ACHE of testing and trials so that we may reap and receive a greater blessing.
My attitudes towards may be marriage may need to be tweaked and changed. My attitudes toward prayer and God first and relying on Him need to be PREPARED.
But what ever it is, God will give a blessing if we allow Him to sort out our “weeds” first and break up the ground in our lives.
To hold a dear precious, godly woman in your arms, will be worth all the pain of preparation.