Life’s game plan includes some changes you can anticipate and plan on. But it will also be filled with sneaky speed bumps, strange detours, frustrating dead ends, sudden lane changes, and unscheduled exits. If you anticipate both the major “expected” changes as well as probable unexpected changes, you’ll stand a better chance of reaching your destination…together. – crosswalk.com

 

What a timely reminder. I had to read this paragraph over and over again so I could the digest what it meant for me until I was reminded of God’s goodness in my life.

I’ve been through many changes. I’ve made a number of major decisions in my life that brought a lot of challenges and sorrows but the joy and rewards far outweigh them. Some of them expected while some, the most hurtful ones, were totally unexpected. It was easy to embrace the changes I expected but those sneaky ones I didn’t expect, were the most difficult to accept. Dealing with the latter was just too hard. But when I think about what the Lord has done, His promises, and what He’s going to do, I am comforted.

Worry used to get the best and worst out of me. I remember one time having a panic attack, thinking about the future life with my then-boyfriend a few weeks before our wedding. I had no regular job as my project recently ended. Fiance was only earning a quarter of what I was earning. But God, in His usual goodness and grace, reminded me not to worry. He used a friend in Christ to remind me that worry will bring me nothing. That being worried and anxious about the future meant I was belittling my God.

He was right. It was God who brought my man and I together. For years He has guided us. He provided for us and our parents too. Surely, the same God who blessed our parents will be the same God who will bless us and our union.

I stopped worrying about the bigger picture—our future as husband and wife. Oh yes, I did still worry but only about the wedding details and the preparations. Small time worries. They really were…small.

Worrying about the marriage was one thing. It was something to be left at the altar.

Worrying about the wedding was another. It was something to be left up to the Lord by asking Him to help you through.

I found treasures since then.

I am still finding what new things God has in stored for me as a woman. This time though I’m not just a woman. I’m now a wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister, and a friend.

I’ve picked up a great number of treasures along the way as I work on those roles. The best so far is being a wife. I can’t honestly say as a mother because I have yet to experience raising a child. Right now, I am my child’s mother in the sense that I take care of him. Raising him up with me as his mother is going to be a totally different thing. I hope and pray to God that I become that mother he wants me to be. It’s only by His grace that I will.

Treasures in trials. Trust me, there are many.

You only need to anticipate that life isn’t perfect. You may stumble and fall. You may commit the gravest sin, put yourself to shame, or expose your soul to the world. You may experience being hurt, disowned, or hated. Privileges may be taken away from you or relationships may be broken. But remember that God allowed those things to happen for a reason. All those trials are ways for you to embrace change: that you need to change and that some things are about to change for the better.

Treasures in trials. I dare you now to turn problems into victories and find the good in challenges. You cannot do it alone but thank God there is His grace.