When Life Doesn’t Go to Plan

image credit: Pink Pot Creative

In high school English classes, one of the first things we always had to discuss when reading a new text was theme. More than often, one of the themes was ‘self discovery’. The character in the story would come to know their true selves and all of a sudden they knew their whole life purpose at the age of 15.

Unfortunately, life doesn’t usually pan out in the same way. At 15, I thought I would marry my high school boyfriend and have a career in fashion. Well, the boyfriend disappeared within a year, but I did manage to study fashion for a year once I left school. I think one of the problems with being a millennial is that there is so much pressure and expectation from society to go get a degree and find you perfect job. Somewhere along the way we wind up feeling disappointed. Disappointed because university wasn’t as fun as the movies. Disappointed with the gaping holes in our pockets from studying degrees we didn’t need. Disappointed that we didn’t land the dream job that we were told we were going to. Disappointed that our ‘dream job’ maybe isn’t even our dream job anymore.

The only thing I’ve ever really and truly wanted to be was a Mum. But no teenager tells that to the career advisor right? I studied fashion design for a year in a city away from home. It was ok and parts of the course were really fun but it wasn’t for me. I enrolled in teachers’ college and shifted back home. Three years later, I’m now married, have a degree and no job. I finished teachers’ college last October, and graduated in December. Here lies the problem. I like to plan and not having a teaching job wasn’t really part of the plan. I thought I would go straight into a full time job. I would pay back my student loan, Aaron and I could go on a nice holiday, heck, we could even get a new sofa! Yet here I am, unemployed. However, the past few months I have had a lot of time to think about life, my plans and God’s purpose for me. These are the things I’ve been learning along the way:

God knows what makes you happy.

He truly does. the last few months I’ve had the opportunity to do so many things that I didn’t have time to do while studying, working and everything else. I’ve been doing things I already love, like cooking and baking, discovering new things to love, like gardening, painting walls and blogging, and discovering things I really don’t love, like painting skirtings and using sandpaper (ugh).

God doesn’t waste anything.

I got told this many years ago when I was having a rough time on an overseas missions trip (a story for another time) and its so true. Sometimes your idea of how things will pan out are quite different to God’s. He is able to use you in any situation whether it be jobless and living in the middle of nowhere, or working at your dream job in New York. As long as there are people around, there’s a chance to show a little light in the world.

God will guide you.

There’s some times where I hear nothing from God and other’s where I’ll spend days in awe of the tiniest piece of revelation I’ve received. God doesn’t drop off a blueprint for your life but gives little pieces of inspiration to point you in the right direction. Over the past few months I’ve came to realise that God doesn’t care so much about your five year plan but more so about being loving, kind, and caring.

At the moment I’m learning to be happy where I am. Some things are just out of my control so I’m making the most of every situation. I came across a verse the other day that’s guiding me for the time being.

So the younger women will be loving wives and mothers. Each of the younger women must be sensible and kind, as well as a good home maker, who puts her husband first.

So that’s where I am at the moment. Striving for kindness. Striving to be a good wife. Striving to show a little love to others around me.