I haven’t read any of Alberry’s work, so I can’t comment on that, however, I think Pastor Wilson is dead on in the articles cited. There is one aspect of the “gift of singleness” that I think is right though. 1 Corinthians 7:32-34 says a married man or woman is concerned with pleasing their husband or wife. Their time and efforts are divided, because of their responsibilities and commitments to their family. One way singleness can be a gift is that a single person has more time to serve the church and the people in it. If I can give an example of how this can be true, there is a young woman in my church in her early twenties. She certainly desires to have a husband and children, and Lord willing she will someday. Until that time, she is a great blessing to our church through the time she invests in others. She often plays piano during during Sunday worship, she volunteers in the church nursery, she does the lion’s share of the prep work for the children’s Sunday School, she volunteers at a small local Christian school her parents run. One time last summer, she had a week off from work and no real commitments, so she spent every day helping a different mother in the congregation with things needing to be done in their house, including an entire day with my wife reorganizing the kids clothes. She’s a real blessing to our church. Undoubtedly, once she’s married and has a new family of her own, she will be a blessing to them. Although she will no doubt continue to bless her church, she will not have the time to do all of the things she helps others with now, and that’s as it should be. This doesn’t mean she’s more important single, or better off single, or a greater blessing single, but the time she has as a single woman is a blessing and a gift from God, just as the time she will devote to her family, if and when the Lord gives her one, will be a blessing and a gift. I think this is something that people often overlook, even those who tout the “gift of singleness.” Sadly, I certainly wasted much of my single days when I had many fewer responsibilities.
There’s a lot of truth in this, and I remember it well from my own single days. My heart definitely goes out to anyone desiring a family who doesn’t have one.