blessings in disguise

My mom gets to have her drain removed today. My dad has to give her blood thinning shots every night for a couple more weeks, but hopefully she will start feeling normal again. Because the surgeries were so close together, she didn't have a chance to recover before she was back in the OR. There are a lot of people on my street that are experiencing hard trials. I think that made it easier to go through all this with my mom. We were able to see that we were not being punished or picked on. We were simply handed a trial that we could handle and become stronger because of it. For months before my mom was diagnosed, I knew something big would happen in my family. I had been too blessed. I couldn't think of any major struggles I was experiencing, and I knew the Lord was preparing me. I still have a fear that something else is headed my way. I believe that trials are blessings in disguise, designed to make us stronger. My biggest trials lately have been watching people I care about go through hard things. I haven't had to do anything particularly awful my self in a long time. I'm trying really hard to push this fear away because I am certainly not asking for something bad to happen to me, I am just realizing that I am really blessed.

beyond my wildest dreams

Here is my list of 5 tasks I wanted to accomplish today.1. Memorize 6 studies for the psychology test 2. Find at least one black pen that works 3. Clean room 4. Put away laundry 5. Get 7 hours of sleep

Hmm...2/5. I'll try again tomorrow. I don't even care because today was so amazing I feel like I am floating on the whipped cream atop an old-fashioned strawberry milkshake with a striped straw. Yep. That good.

Prayers are answered in ways we don't expect. I've heard that all my life, but never have I experienced it more fully than today. Up until now, I haven't had to make a whole lot of hard decisions. They've always been between bad and good or good and good. Both situations impossible to mess up. Now I have been faced with the task of choosing between good and better. Even harder, it has often been unclear exactly what choice was good and what was better.

I have had to throw up my hands and give up control, something I struggle with. I am very independent, so it was hard to let go and trust that everything would work out how it was supposed to. Through some experiences in this last little while, I have come to an unshakable knowledge that my Heavenly Father has an exact plan designed specifically for me. He knows the difference between good and better. He was directed my choices. He has revealed solutions to unsolvable problems.

My priorities completely shifted today. I saw a glimpse of the long-term plan for my life. I don't know what lies ahead or what road to take, but He does. Prayers are often answered in unexpected ways, but the outcome is always better than we could have envisioned, even if it doesn't seem like it right away.