About 2 years ago, I thought I had a 5 year plan.  But let me tell you, I was wrong. A lot of things happened that threw me off track. The guy I was dating ended up not being who I thought he was. I went back and forth with some choices I had to make in my program here at BYU, which led me to be in school longer than I had hoped. I had been applying to job after job, and didn't get any of them. I even really thought I was going to get an internship that I really wanted, and that didn't end up happening. Basically, everything I had planned on didn't happen. I was getting frustrated. I thought I was doing everything right, but nothing was going as I wanted it to, or as I thought at the time, needed it to.

Lesson learned: My time is different than the Lord's time. He really tested my patience, for the record. 

2 years later, I can see why everything happened the way it did. I know I was supposed to meet Jeff. I found a job that is way better than all of the other jobs I had been applying for. My timing in school has worked out great with other things going on in my life. I couldn't have asked for things to go any better. 

But...

None of this was my doing. It is so hard when you are going through a rough patch in life, or things are going the way you wanted them to, to see that God has a better plan for you - a much bigger one that really is the best way for things to go. When I thought that things needed to go a certain way, I was so off base. I wanted things to go a certain way. But my life would work out fine even if they didn't go that way, because I should have had faith that the Lord would send me on the right path.

Why is this important? Life is crazy, fun, dumb sometimes, exciting, wonderful, etc., and it gets so crazy that we forget we are such a tiny part in this huge plan. There is a talk by Elder Richard G. Scott, "Trust In the Lord," that I love and captures my imperfect thoughts perfectly and I encourage you to read it. At all times, we need to know that God has something planned for us, and when we go through rough times and things don't go as we had hoped, we need to pray and rely on him for help and guidance through difficult times. 

I am so grateful that I have a knowledge of how Heavenly Father has a plan for us. It took reflecting to realize that everything I went through happened for a reason. Today, I know I am exactly where I am supposed to be, about to be married for eternity and progressing towards being a teacher. What I thought was supposed to happen just wasn't the way it was supposed to go, and I can see that now.

love, SK