From little up I was dreaming of my own family and children, and looking forward to my full age when I will be able to get married. Time passed, suitors gave place to one another, but I was very fastidious and waiting for my Prince Charming. I was 18, then 20 years old, when most of my friends got married one by one. The Prince Charming was out of sight, and I was attracted by the church, started to reappraise my life and values, to live a spiritual life - and it became clear for me that people must be married in church and that my husband must believe in God. I did not pay attention to secular young men any longer, and I started looking for my prince among those who were in the church with me. My spiritual counsellor, a strict and ascetic person, was rather vague about the marrige matter. At some point I realized that, because of my being absorbed into the orthodoxy, I lost all my friends. My relatives chuckled: they said I was too absorbed into religion, and this was in the way to my getting married. And only my parents supported me, who said that everything was good in its season. Here I was, a 25-year-old woman without a husband. I was very sad, and it seemed to me that it was not real to meet the man of my life. My life was going by, my friends' children were growing up, my relatives gave up on me, and I was still alone. In order not to go crazy I went on pilgrimages, prayed to all saints for the only thing - A HUSBAND! Deep in my soul I did not hope for the miracle - I prayed automatically, and my prayers were like a spell, a mantra. Gradually I acquired new orthodox friends and we did some common things together. I met some young people but my soul responded to neither of them. I was on friendly terms with some of them. I asked my spiritual counsellor about them, but he kept rejecting each of them. Though he was not too categoric rejecting them - it just became clear from his words that this or that person did not suit me. When I was about 28, I started to realize that I would never get married, because there were so many candidates and no one suited me. I am sorry to say that I even started to think bad of my spiritual counsellor: it seemed that he was going to cloister me, as he always asked me to learn church singing or to organize holidays in our Sunday school. Well, I started losing my heart then, but suddenly, at that sad moment of my life, there appeared lots of orthodox ypung men around me, each better than another. And thus I celebrated my thirtieth birthday: in a sea of flowers and friends, with the hope that everything will be all right with me. So, I chose the most worthy of all the candidates and we started dating. I did not say a word to my spiritual counsellor. Our relations were developing, but gradually they came down to indifferent, the inner protest appeared, I did not have any wish to continue them. My heart was broken, I did not know what to do, I did not dare to ask my spiritual counsellor either. A month passed in such agony, I could not bear it any longer - I started behaving in such manner so that my suitor fell out of love with me. As a result, he wrote an angry letter where he exposed all my vices and shortcomings - thus our relations were broken off. I am not able to descrbe how I felt - I remember weeping in my friend's kitchen, hopeless, disillusioned and depressed… I thought that this was the end, that I was not destined to get married, and I had to accept this. The next day I receive a message from my friends to go to the akathist to St. Peter and St. Febronia with them. I accept the invitation automatically, hoping that by Sunday I will find a reason to refuse. On Sunday it is very dull and in order to kill the time I am going to the akathist. I am absently listening to the divine service in front of the icon, looking at the girls, seeing them sincerely praying, examining the church… and I find myself staring at a young man's back who is standing in front of me. I am examining him and wondering why a handsome, intelligent young man is also alone and has come to pray for a family of his own. I am standing and thinking that I have been praying to God for so many years and have not received any reply. I decide to pray for a good wife for this young man, I wish him to be happy. And I prayed for him during the whole service. And when we came up to the icon, I recalled him - we got acquianted 6 months before at my friend's birthday. He did not recognize me, and I lost him in the crowd… You cannot imagine my surprise when the friend of mine, who listened to my weepings in her kitchen, called me and told that Andrey liked me very much and that he wanted to meet with me. Andrey was the man who I prayed for in front of the icon of St. Peter and St. Febronia! And he did not see me in the church then, but he thought about me - and it was just after the akathist when he decided to speak to me. This is how it happened: I prayed for a wife for Andrey, and here I was! When I decided for myself and relied on myself - the God subdued me, but when I rejected myself - the God sent me my husband! Thanks God! And right they say - the ways of God are inscrutable! The names of the author and characters are fictional.
