Thankful Thursday #3

I've been thinking an awful lot lately about unanswered prayers... or rather, prayers that were answered, but not in my way.  I've prayed for God to do many, many things in my life.  And I don't mind being very specific with God, letting Him know exactly in detail how I think He should answer my prayer... Yah... I can be super selfish.

But thankfully, God doesn't always give me my way.  I was thinking this week about what if God had given me everything I'd ever prayed for... I would likely not have any of the blessings I currently have in my life.  Would I be married?  Maybe... but probably not to Brian.  Would I have children?  Yes... but likely not the two amazing ones I ended up with.  There's no telling what in the world I'd be doing for a living... I've prayed so many employment prayers it's not even funny :).  If God had answered one of those early prayers about what I wanted to be when I grew up I'd be a pretty crappy Astronaut or Neurosurgeon  (math and science are NOT my thing :)).

Is my life perfect?  No.  Not at all.  But, I love my life.  I love all the amazing people God's placed around me and the crazy, unbelievable opportunities He's given me.  I remember in college, when I'd changed my major for the 6th time in 4 years (yes, I'm one of those people), how I hated having to pick one thing and make that my career.  I don't think I ever verbalized what I wished for into a prayer, but I longed to be able to do all the things I enjoyed doing without having to pick just one.  Would you believe in the past year of my life, I've seen that wish come true?  I get to make graphics and tinker around with nerdy web stuff, I sell things on Ebay, I got to coordinate a wedding and had a BLAST doing it, I organized events for our church, I'm finally writing again (yay blog!)--something I've loved to do my whole life, and I've gotten to learn more about makeup artistry and test out my skills on some super sweet people. It's crazy.  And I have an amazing husband who is my biggest cheerleader and has always made it possible (financially, physically, and mentally :)) for me to do whatever I want to do. Man, I'm blessed.

So this week, I'm so thankful for all the times God's not let me have my way... His plan rules.  :)