When the Journey Isn't What You Expect

It is September 2011....that is crazy! Time really does go by far too quickly and I have never done as much as I intended nor especially as much as I SHOULD have done.

I can't believe that in 2 days it will be the TEN year anniversary of the horrific attack on the World Trade Towers. It reminds me of how good God has been to me. That may sound like a strange thing to say but I was supposed to be in America at that time and even had a trip scheduled to New York right around that time. There was a problem with visas and it meant that we had to come home early...really early! A planned 8 month trip cut down to just 90 days. I remember being so angry and frustrated at the time to think that all of our plans had been so thrown upside down. We ended up leaving the States in August.

I remember being woken by a friend in the early hours of the morning and told to turn on the tv...I couldn't believe my eyes...so much horror! It is a terrible thing that happened and far too many people lost their lives but I still have to be thankful for the Lord sending me home. He is far too good to me but I am grateful.

We may not always understand why the Lord turns us away from the path that we think is right but He always has a purpose and He is always right. He always knows best and if we are just willing to wait His plan will become clear the further we walk on the way He is guiding.

I will always remember the illustration of a mother creating a cross-stitch picture while her child looks up at her from underneath the work. All the child sees is a tangled mess of threads and colours and he doesn't understand why his mother is making such a mess of her picture. He doesn't understand until the mother is finished with her work and then lifts her child on to her lap to show him the completed and beautiful picture.

We often look at our lives and see a tangled mess but we can't see the beautiful picture that the Lord is creating from where He sits. We simply need to trust that He knows what He's doing and if we will just be patient and allow Him to guide our steps then things will come out in a beautiful picture in the end.

"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end." Jeremiah 29:11

"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all they ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct they paths." Proverbs 3:5-6