Milestones...Past, Present and Future

I know there are many people in my life who woke up today, headed in to work, and then happened to look at a calendar and see today's date...June 8th...and that triggered them to think of me and maybe they even prayed a quick prayer for me.  Some probably wondered how I was on this day...admit it, you know you did!  But, most of you probably felt too awkward to say anything, so in my usual way, I'm going to address this topic head on.

Yes, today is the day I was married nine years ago.  I remember it, too...but the day doesn't hold the joy, nor the pain as it has in the past.  It honestly, is just a day on the calendar to me at this point.  Because it is a day I associate as a touchstone of past events and a reminder of what God has done in my life over the past decade, I did something I don't normally do...I went back and read what I posted on this day one year ago.  Wow, that takes me back to that season of my life where I was in such limbo...I mean, I believed God had a plan and I had a lot of faith and trust in that plan.  I was being asked to wait for it all to unfold, and I was being promised that change was coming...but in the process, I was in agony in that waiting.  Just months later, I was finally released from my convenant from God but at the time of that blog, I didn't know the when or hows of it all.

The things that jump off at me as I re-read that blog are two-fold:  1)I was steadily praying God's will be done in my life and 2)I knew there was a reason I was being asked to wait.  I won't lie and say I was just thrilled about waiting, but I knew enough to know that God was in control.  Boy was He ever...!

Now a short year later, I can look back and see that God had such a HUGE plan unfolding for my life during that time.  The whole time I was praying for one person, or so I thought, He was readying another person for me and lining things up in his life as well.  Turns out my prayers were heard and answered, just in a very different, but WAY better way!  Some times we have to wait because of us, but other times, we are waiting for God to work things on the OTHER side of the mountain (or maybe both things at the same time!)  God always knows better and He always brings beauty out of the ashes when we get out of the way and let Him work!

I'm a big girl and I'm pretty good about admitting when I am wrong...so I will take this moment to say, I WAS WRONG.  I really believed at that point in my life that I had already had my shot at love, I had married the man of my dreams and I would never be able to top the day we were married in my life.  That has turned out to be very wrong and I now see that.  I was short-changing God by saying those things and I was putting God in a box that I had created with my mind.  Please understand that I did believe God was going to do some big things in my life and I was already seeing the fruits of that, but at the same time, I was limiting what I thought God could and would do.  Big mistake!

What I can say at this point is I have learned what can happen when you let God pick a person for you vs. you pick them out for yourself!  There is a love that is so much greater, deeper and pure that occurs when you love someone as God intended all along.  The spiritual connection that occurs when God lines two peoples' hearts up is just nothing short of amazing.  The deepness of the relationship and the love that grows when two people are spiritually connected still astounds me.  I didn't know how to pray for where I'm at today because I didn't know it existed!  It truly is more than I could ever ask or imagine...thank you Lord for always having a better plan for my life than what I can think up!

So for those of you who are in limbo today because of days on a calendar that are painful to you, whether that's because of divorce or a death of a loved one or some other hurt...just know that most times, we just can not understand the why's and how's of God's timing.  Trust in Him for the outcome and the future.  Let Him bring you NEW milestones and NEW dates on the calendar to circle and be overjoyed about!  He can and will redeem all that pain where those old hurts just no longer sting anymore...they turn out to be just a day that need not be feared.

Philipians 3:13
Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Here's to the Future!

JOY