Life....not the cereal

Do you ever sit back, look at your life and you realize that you are so very blessed of the Lord? I do not mean that you are counting your blessings...I mean you take a serious look back and realize that God has been there directing your steps even when the path you were on seemed very bleak. I was thinking about the path that led me to my husband. I had started my first semester at a certain college in the panhandle of Florida and was not a particular fan of being there. Any place that makes you bunker down in a horrible hurricane when you could have evacuated to your own cozy home is off of my list. Not to mention the horrible, waterless, showerless, toiletless existence I had to live in during that horrible storm....but I am chasing a bunny trail. At that time I was also in, what I thought, was a very serious relationship with my first boyfriend. We talked often over the phone, he came to visit, I built lofty dreams of a home and family in my mind. Then, for reasons I did not know at the time, he stopped communicating with me. Then, I moved to another college which was even further away from my family and my best friend also moved back to her home in North Dakota. My whole "life" it felt like was upside down. It felt like I was starting all over. Praise the Lord, I was starting all over. It was during the move to the new college that I met Ryan. Even the way I met Ryan was from the Lord. I realized today as I was going to my home, the home I have always dreamed of, that I am so blessed BECAUSE God did not let me have my own way. I am blessed because the plan he had for me was what I finally submitted to. God's ways are the best ways and while sometimes the path seems really steep, painful, dark, or sometimes lonely...the end result is worth it all.