It's been a while since my last entry, so I decided today would be a good day to post something new.
I thought about the fact that I never explained the verse at the top of my blog, so today my post will be about why Jeremiah 29:11 has meant so much for Tyler and I in our marriage. You see, over and over again in our lives the Lord has shown us that even though our plans don't always work out, His plans are so much better.
I guess I should start at the beginning of our story. Tyler and I met at Liberty University where we were attending college, but if God hadn't intervened in both of our lives our senior years of high school, we may never have met. Tyler was planning to attend a school back home in Massachusetts, but his plans fell through and he had to choose another school. He chose Liberty at the last minute because two of his childhood friends were going. I had planned to attend a local college here in Roanoke for as long as I can remember, and I had even been accepted and received an offer for a full scholarship to the school during my senior year, but I didn't feel a peace about going even though it had been my life-long dream. My mom suggested I consider Liberty, but I had no intentions of going until I visited the campus. I went to visit a friend, but came home convinced that that was where God wanted me. If we had followed our own plans, our paths would have never crossed, but God had better plans.
Our journey didn't stop there though. A few years later, Tyler and I got engaged. We thought for sure that it would only be a one year engagement and that we would be married at the end of our senior year, but once again God had other plans. I ended up needing an extra semester of school to finish my teaching license, so after much debate and a few tears, we agreed to my parent's request that we wait until I was done with school. We were engaged for two very long years, but we remained faithful to God's calling on our lives and His plans for us and when we did get married, we both had our degrees, Tyler had a steady job at the paper, I was one step closer to a full time teaching position, and we had bought a house. If we had married earlier like we planned, we would have started into a marriage struggling to get by.
When I thought that we had figured out my job situation and believed that it was God's plan for me to be a substitute teacher our first year of marriage, God again stepped in and provided me with the most incredible job opporunity at a school that I love. And then when I thought that I might lose that job due to budget cuts, God stepped in with His plans once again and split me between two schools. It didn't seem like a blessing at first, but when the other option was not having a job, it really wasn't so bad, and I've come to appreciate my home school and the people I work with so much more through this year. And now after a year of driving all over Roanoke, I have finally learned that next year I will be back at the school I love full time doing the thing I love! It has been a roller coaster ride, but God has remained faithful in it all, and His plans have proven over and over again to be the best plans for our lives.
Though there are still many uncertaintities for our future, there is one thing that I know for sure; God in His word has promised that His plans are meant for good not harm, and they are meant to give me hope for the future. If I have learned anything over the years, it is that my hope lies in the Lord alone and that is the surest anchor for my life.
