Things Happen for a Reason

Things Happen for a Reason

 One of the things I have learned over the past 5 years is that you can’t plan your life out. It’s good to have goals and something to work towards, but Heavenly Father might have something else in store for you. We are the clay in His hands and He will mold and shape us until we are perfect (if we let Him). And even if the course in life we wanted to take was good and a lot of good would have come of it, life will be better, and you will become a better person as we subject ourselves and our lives to the Lord.

 As I was getting ready to graduate from high school I thought really seriously about the course of my life and where I wanted to go, what I wanted to be, I had a list of goals and a bucket list I wanted to accomplish. Some of what it consisted of was going to college, graduating with a degree in special education. Going on a mission, joining the peace corp., and then finally getting married and having kids and being a stay-at-home mom. Well, Heavenly Father had something different in mind, and I am so grateful He did. 2 months after I graduated I met the man I was supposed to marry. And ever since then my life hasn’t gone how I had planned it out in high school. And although it is not what I was planning on, it has been so much better than anything I could have ever imagined. And I am slowly learning all the reasons behind it.

 I married the man of my dreams and slowly rearranged my life plan. Brad and I kind of had the next couple of years planned out. We were going to start our family. I was going to be a stay-at-home mom and Brad was going to work and go to school. So Brad and I moved from Utah to Idaho where we both started attending Brigham Young University-Idaho. So we started school, and in hopes that we would be pregnant soon I just took a lot of homemaking classes. Well, a year went by and no babies. So I went to apply for my next year of school, but my classes weren't lining up, I wouldn't be able to work my job if I got all the classes I wanted, and my financial aid fell threw at the last minute. So I decided to take a semester off. And it never felt right to go back to school. That feeling has made me upset. I love school. I do really well at it, and I could have been done with it by now. So I started to dig deeper and really pray about why I wasn't supposed to be going to school. School is a good thing, so why did I feel like I wasn't supposed to go right now. I don’t have kids, and from the looks of it, I probably won’t have them for a while, so why can’t I be going to school.

 It wasn't until one day at work I got my answer. I had just got back to my office after dealing with an older child throwing a huge fit. I sat at my desk and realized that 4 years ago that kid would just get under my skin and push all my buttons, but now it doesn't even faze me. And then I just got a flood of information of all the little things I have learned over the course of four years. And then my answer came. What I have learned in the past 4 years is more valuable than anything I could have learned elsewhere. This is what I needed right now in my life and I couldn't have learned these lessons any other way. This job was molding me into what Heavenly Father wants me to be. He knows how bad I want to be a mother and the lessons I have learned will help me become a better mom.

 I talked to Brad about what I had just realized. As I was telling him this I realized something else. This was the text I sent Brad. “Our kids must be pretty amazing if Heavenly Father has made us wait this long and made me learn these lessons beforehand. A lot of people don’t learn these lessons before they have kids. Sometimes they don’t even learn them at all. So our kids must have a very special place in His heart. He wants us to be the best we can be before He lets them go.” These past four years He has been molding me to be the kind of mom I have dreamed of.

Everything happens for a reason. Although we might not know why, we just have to trust that the Lord is doing this to make us better. I am so grateful that my life didn't turn out the way I planned it. I am a better person and have learned so much by following the path that Heavenly Father has laid out for me. The bumps and hills along the way make us stronger and Christ will walk with us hand in hand the whole way if we allow Him too.