A Better Plan

I prayed for God to give me what I need, and He delivered. Sometimes what we need isn't always what we want, but in the long run it is always better.

I always learn things the best in hindsight. There have been many times in my life where I didn't get what I wanted, or maybe I did, and it didn't turn out exactly as I planned. But somehow, things worked out in a way that I got exactly what I needed, and sometimes that is a swift kick in the pants. I know that's how things panned out for me.

I experienced this dilemma when I first graduated college and started looking for a job. I knew what I wanted but not what I needed. I kept praying "God, please give me this job. I need this job," but God had a better plan. I went a few months without a job when I first got my degree. I was living at home with my parents, my loans were coming in demanding to be paid, and still no income. I had big dreams of what I wanted to accomplish in my life, and it seemed that every obstacle was standing in my way.

I was majorly disappointed when the one job I really wanted turned me down. And then the second. And then the third. I finally took a part-time job at the mall as a Sales Associate, something I thought only high-school students did, and let's face it... I felt like a loser. Sometime around the third month of no full-time job, I got a call from my aunt asking if I had a passport. I said yes, and she asked if I would like to go to Europe. What started off as a 10-day trip ended up being a 6-week trip, almost entirely paid for by my aunt and uncle. A week later, I was on a plane to Greece and began my once-in-a-lifetime backpacking trip around Europe.

I know some people can't be so lucky, but like I said, God knew what I needed. He didn't let me get that dream job I wanted because He had something better in mind. If I had gotten any of the jobs I interviewed for, I would have never gotten to go to Europe for 6 weeks, and I probably would've been sitting behind a desk somewhere, hating my life. To top it off, I got a full-time job when I came back, and even though it wasn't my "dream job" per se, it was still the experience I needed at the time, and God had a plan for it.

That's why I say trust God. He knows what He's doing, and He knows what we need better than we do. Remember, God knows our hearts better than we know ourselves, so why wouldn't we trust a God like that? Why wouldn't we give our life plans to the only One who can see around the corner?

I have learned to start praying for God to give me what I need, even though it's not what I want, because I know that His plan is much better than mine.