Friday, June 27, 2008

Delight thyself in the Lord...part 3.

Sorry for my lateness in returning to finish this post. Life has been busy of late, and I've had a hard time finding "free time".

Let me try to pick up where I left off. If you haven't read the first two parts of this, you can go see part 1 and part 2 to bring you up to date.

So, as I was saying, I really began wondering if any guy exsisted that came anywhere close to my standards. At the time, I knew a few young men, but they really weren't what I was looking for. Sometimes I wondered if my standards were too high. Would I really be able to find the "man of my dreams"?

The answer came (at least partly) in December of 2006. For many years I had corresponded with a girl who was the daughter of a missionary my family supported. Finally the opportunity had presented itself for me to take a trip to Malawi Africa and meet her and her family. A pastor friend of ours was taking his daughter and some others over and so I was invited to go along. I was very excited about the prospect, as I had wanted to go there for quite a long time.

The time came and we took the trip over there. When we arrived, Joy was there to meet us along with her dad and a few siblings. I thoroughly enjoyed my ten day stay, and was actually quite sad to leave. It was good to get home, though and I soon fell back into the swing of things at home. But during this whole time, the thought of marriage to Victor really never crossed my mind. He seemed like a nice guy (what little I saw of him) but he was a whole 7 1/2 years older than me, and he just didn't seem my type.

(Let me interupt this story here for a mintue and encourage you young ladies out there about something. When a young man is brought into your life by your heavenly Father, try to put "feelings" out of the way and try to determine rather if this is God's will, and NOT do I think we "go well together".)

As I was saying, life went on. I graduated that year. I was as busy as ever. September rolled around, and one of the girls from the trip was getting married. Our pastor had been asked to speak the Sunday after the wedding, and since they had an extra seat in their van, I was able to go along and attend the wedding.
While travelling our to Florida where the wedding would be held, we stopped at a small church in Louisianna where Pastor was going to preach on a Wednesday night. The services where held at the Pastor's home in his garage and after the service, most of the young people went outside to play, visit, etc. I didn't really know anybody, so I wandered out into the yard and sat down on the huge trampoline and looked up into the beautiful night sky. For some reason, I had one phrase from a bible verse going around and around in my head. It was the phrase "Thy maker is thine Husband." (A horrible misquote I'm sure but that's basically what it said.) As I lay their looking at the beautiful stars in the night sky, I was reminded that I had been dwelling too much on marriage. I needed to let it go and focus on my life here and now and seek to serve the Lord in whatever ways I could while I had the time.
Shortly before I had left on this trip, I had had breakfast with a friend of mine who was in her late twenty's and still waiting on God to bring her husband to her. She had encouraged me to focus on my heavenly Father and serving Him, and to remember that it's not all about getting married. In fact, we don't deserve to ever get married. Rather, it is a special blessing given to us by our loving heavenly Father.

And so, with those thoughts swirling in my mind, I lay on the trampoline looking at the stars and feeling the sweet peace that comes from trusting in your Heavenly Father to provide everything you need.

That peace, however, was short lived...

(To be continued...)

3 comments:

Ruth Ann said...

BETHANY!!!...it's like you're cutting it off in the middle of the best part ever! You're leaving me in terrifying suspense, tho' I know that the rest of the story isn't terrifying at all.

Thanks for sharing. It's true, that "marriage isn't what life is all about" but I guess as young girls we act that way sometime. We say "that's what we're *supposed* to do, get married & have children.." and then we're all upset if we don't get *our way*.

Honestly, I want God to write my story, but sometimes I'm trying to take the pen away from Him by dictating to Him how I want it to turn out. It's hard sometimes, I know, but God's grace is more than sufficient.

Looking forward to the rest...you really caught me offguard cutting it off like that!! :)

Love you!
Ruth Ann

Granny Kate said...

I second the thought about wanting God's man for you, and setting feelings aside. The man God gave me is 10 1/2 years older than me, was not "my type", and I definitely was NOT interested in him AT ALL. But he did match the list of qualifications I had set before the Lord the year before--he fit every single one. Apparently I had not mentioned anything to God about what "my type" was. :)

Rebekah said...

I'm enjoying reading your story, Bethany! I can't wait for you to finish! I hate/love the suspense! hehe :)