When Dreams Come True

When I read this, I fall to my knees in thankfulness to God. There was a time in my life when I wondered if this statement was true. I didn't have the family that I wanted. My life at home wasn't the "Christian" life that I so desperately desired. I hated my life in a lot of ways, and I loved God so much. And I couldn't understand why God hadn't placed me into a situation where my family lived the same life that I sought-one that led to heaven. I couldn't understand what I had done to "deserve" the punishment I felt like I was dealt. But I held on. I held on when I read this passage. I prayed. I trusted God with every ounce of trust I could muster.

It paid off. My dreams came true! The life that I am living right now is the life that I dreamed of as a young girl. I love everything about it. I love my husband. I love that he is a man of God. I love working so closely with the church. I love attending Heritage Christian University where I can learn more and more about God. I love the future that I dream of. I love the children that I dream of. I love the family that we have and the family I can imagine in the future. I love everything about it, and I have no one to thank for it but God. God has blessed me with this life that I live. I haven't earned it. But I am so thankful for it.

All those years ago, when I was so afraid that things would never change, God's promise held true. He did (does) have a future for me. His plans for me were (are) to give me a future and a hope. And He has blessed me in ways that I can never thank Him enough for.

I fall down in worship is I reminisce, awestruck, about the impact He has had and is having on my life each day that I live and each breath that I take.

Dear God,
Thank you. You have blessed me so richly. You have given me such a wonderful life. Your hand in my life has been so clear, so obvious, and so amazing. I am awestruck by your presence. Please help me to never take this for granted. Please stir in me, daily, a desire to live my life in a way that glorifies and thanks You for all that You have done. And please, God, if we are ever blessed with children, start molding me now. Do what it takes to turn me into the type of woman you would have a mother to be. And if we are blessed with children someday, give us wisdom to show them Your way. Give us wisdom to teach them Your way in a way that sticks, so that they will grow in the faith and be Yours forever. Thank you for giving me a future with a hope already. And I pray that the future with a hope that you've promised will continue to unfold in my life. And I pray that I will continue to recognize Your hand in it and give you every bit of the glory for it.
Amen.

You Don't Have to Miss Out on the Blessing Just Because You Are Young

It really bothers me when, during discussions about spiritual growth through trials, sometimes older people will make comments like “When you get to be our age, you can REALLY look back and see it.” And sometimes when an older person is giving me some sort of advice, sometimes I feel talked down at, as though I will never understand until I am their age. And it’s as if they know so much that I don’t know. And they will try to explain how God is doing this for a reason…and I will be thankful for it later, looking back. And many of the things they are saying, I have already seen and learned. And as I try to explain this to them, they won’t listen to me.

It bothers me because you don’t have to be old, with 60 years experience under your belt to be able to see God working in your life. It’s not about a difference in age. It’s really about a difference in spiritual maturity.

And guess what? I’m only 20 years old, and I can look back and see where God did things for a reason, even though I didn’t like it at the time. It might not be something as big as the death of a spouse, or a child, for instance. But there are things that were hard for me at the time, and now I am thankful they happened the way they did.

I wanted to leave public school and go to Mars Hill Bible School for years. And I didn’t get to. Not until 9^th grade. But looking back, God used those years in public school to mold me. And I have an appreciation for Christian education that I probably wouldn’t have if I had grown up in it.

I wanted a boyfriend all through my pre-teen and teenage years. I longed for it. I depressed myself over it. I let it define who I was that no one liked me and therefore I was ugly and undesirable. I never even had my first kiss until the end of my Sr. year at age 18, and now I am thankful; He is my husband today. And I can see many reasons that I won’t post publicly that God protected me until HE was ready. He saved me in every way for the one I would spend my life with. He helped me develop patience. He showed me that things on earth simply don’t happen on our desired timeline; that our desire is not always His will; that sometimes His answer to prayer is “wait.” He helped me see that He is truly at work. He gave me time to pray for the man I would spend my life with, and He answered that prayer, fully and infinitely beyond anything I could have asked for.

I could “testify” for days. I could fill up this entire page with God’s work in my life. But my point is this: you don’t have to be old to see God’s hand in your life. You don’t have to miss out on that blessing while you are young. You don’t have to get old and wish you had this insight “back then.” Because the truth is, if you are prayerful and you try with all your heart to live out God’s will, and to seek His direction, and to ask Him for wisdom through trials, you can see it now. No matter how old you are. So don’t miss it. And don’t feel like you are exempt from looking for his fingerprints just because you’re not 60. If you’ll open your eyes and try, and look through “eternal” and “Christ-like” glasses, you’ll see it.