How diligently you lay out your desires before the Throne of Grace, even to the smallest particulars, and this is well, for the Lord would have us unburden our hearts to Him as to a faithful Husband. Yet forget not that before any earthly union, the Lord Jesus Christ presents Himself to your soul as your Ishi, your Man, your Husband, and His love is wonderful, surpassing that of women or of men. The conquest of love draws you no more to call Him Baali, a Lord of law and servitude, but to call Him Ishi in tender intimacy. It is no light thing to desire a spouse, but let your first delight be in Him who has loved you with an everlasting love, and who, having bought you with His blood, deserves your whole heart. When the soul has drunk deeply of the honeycomb of Christ's presence, it can then, with holy indifference, leave the lesser loves to His wise provision, for He knows what you have need of before you ask.
You have asked for one attractive, of right speech, and without a certain trial of mind. But consider, was Jonathan's love for David based on such merits? No, love is born of grace, not of conditions. The Lord may see fit to give you a husband formed just as you desire, or He may in His infinite wisdom offer one who bears a cross you would rather avoid, that together you might learn of His sufficiency. Shall the clay instruct the potter? The love that springs from Calvary is not so delicate; it loves despite ten thousand faults. If you are truly Christ's, His love will teach you to love as He loves, not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. That a man can speak English and go to church with you is a good hope, but the deeper question is whether his heart is aflame with love for the same Saviour, and whether you can, by divine grace, cleave to him as your own flesh, though he bear what you now think unbearable. Remember, sin alone is the true deformity; all other infirmities our Lord can turn to the display of His power.
You plead in the name of Jesus Christ, this is your only acceptance. As the year of Jubilee, the acceptable year of the Lord, is proclaimed without money and without price, so every blessing comes to the unworthy through the atoning blood. No merit of your asking will secure a husband, but the Father delights to give good gifts to His children when they ask in submission to His will. Yet I would gently caution you: be not so earnest in detailing what the man must be that you neglect to ask what you must become, a wife meet for him. And what if God should choose to keep you for Himself alone? Is it not enough that He is your portion? Many have found that the single life, when spent in service, has been a treasure-house of peace, for Christ fills all in all.
Go to Him, then, not with a list that makes your love conditional, but with open hands. Tell Him your longings, He hears, but lay them at His feet with a "nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt." He who knows the love of Jesus best will find that human affection, sweet as it may be, is but the echo of that love divine, all loves excelling. Let your soul first rejoice in Him who is altogether lovely, and then, if an earthly bridegroom come, you will receive him as from the Lord's own hand, saying, "Your love to me, O Lord, is wonderful, all else is but added mercy." May the love wherewith He loved you when you were in the wilderness be your portion, and may you count His love better than life, whether He grants you this desire or no. Take your fill from His honeycomb, and then the rest shall be added as He pleases.