It's all part of "The Plan"!

I haven't written in quite some time. This summer was bumpy. I won't go into the details because, frankly, I don't feel like reliving them. It's now Labor Day weekend. Summer is officially over. No more white clothing. What? I always hated that "law"...no white after Labor Day. My boys are with their dad this weekend and he took them to visit his family in Utah, so I get the whole weekend to myself. One of the things that I decided I would do is spend some time writing. I love to write, nothing in particular, just start and see where my thoughts take me. Unlike some bloggers, I'm not one to tell about vacations or family outings as much as I tell about what's going on in this ol' brain of mine. And honestly, I don't really blog for the purpose of having others read it, even though I have 2 followers. Thanks Traci and Danielle! I mostly blog because I enjoy sitting down at the computer and doing some self-introspection while I listen to some good music. Sometimes I repeat things that I have said on other blog entries. I guess that just means that those are things that I am thinking about alot. Ok, well here goes.......free writing. Enjoy!

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to chat with someone that I haven't spoken to in approximately 2o years. It was fun. The only part that I really hate about that is that they want me to fill them in on everything thats happened in my life in that past 2 decades. I usually start out by telling that I am recently divorced and from there, after they express their sympathies, I explain how it's a good thing and that I am ok about it. I will then go into about how I came to the decision to get divorced and where the marriage failed. Why do I feel the need to do this? I never even ask the person if they want to hear this whole explanation. I just automatically start justifying my decision to end my marriage. I guess I know why I do it. I do it because I grew up learning and I believe, no, I know that divorce is not a good thing. It hurts all involved.

When I got married, I thought it was forever. I intended for it to be forever. Even though I knew that I wasn't perfect and neither was the guy I was marrying, I thought that if we loved eachother and worked at making it last, we could make it work. The key phrase is: "if we loved eachother and worked at making it last". If one or both stop working at it for whatever reason, then its hard. Understandably too, I guess, is the reasoning that when it's all such hard work, and not much joy, it gets absolutely exhausting. You start to wonder if marriage is supposed to be so dang exhausting. I certainly have seen couples that make it look easy, and fun to be married and wonder if they are the exception rather than the rule. It just makes me crazy that such a difficult decision like choosing a person to live with and love for the rest of your life is taken on at such a young age. I remember feeling like an old maid when I was single at 24 yrs of age. Now, I look back and think that, like drinking alcohol, marriage should have a legal coming of age!! I know that this is the ramblings of one who didn't make good decisions and is trying to justify her bad decisions by blaming it on society and the rules of society. The truth is that I'm sure I knew in my heart of hearts that I was making a bad decision and went through with it anyway. Why? Because that's just where I was at the time. I wasn't trying to be stupid or rebellious, I just made a mistake, and am living with the consequences of that mistake. He wasn't a bad person, but there were red flags. That's the thing: you have the freedom to make choices, but you do not have the freedom to choose the consequences of those choices. It's a package deal. Sorry. I am now trying to take inventory of the lessons I learned from those choices so as not to continue to make the same mistakes. Isn't that what life is all about?

Ok, here is the crux of the matter!! The point that I really want to talk about. Talking about my marriage is boring and uninteresting. I talk about it all the time and I know, without anyone telling me, that it is excruciatingly painful to listen to anymore!!

The real point is this: We are sent here to this earth for a brief mortal sojourn for a reason. We are all different and have different strengths and weaknesses that we were born with. We will all make different mistakes and we will all accomplish different things during this short time that we exist on this planet. Some may wonder if our being here even has any significance. Well, I strongly believe that it does. Every part of me believes that God sent us here to earth for a purpose. He knows us and knows that we are going to make mistakes. He didn't just place us here and hope that we don't screw ourselves up too badly.

So we come to this earth, sometimes under ideal circumstances, sometimes not. We go through this life taking from every experience, every circumstance, and from these we form our own perceptions. These things form who we are. We absorb everything - every word we are told, every emotion that we feel, everything we see, hear and participate in. Every single thing goes into to making us who we will be. We absorb it all, we record it all, and it becomes a part of us. There are some things that make a bigger impression on our souls than others. There are things that really define us and go into the formation of our core belief systems and our characters. The hope is that we are funneled more positive, and the negative, more damaging things, will be filtered with the help of parents, teachers, loved one, and other mentors. Unfortunately, as we have seen, the ones who should be protecting kids from the damaging things are sometimes those very people that do the most damage. Ouch! God knew that there would be sickos and psychos and wackos all having babies and doing a wonderful job in messing up these kids' lives. He knew and he knows and he cares. All will be taken into consideration when it comes time to evaluate our lives. Every circumstance, every chemical imbalance, every teaching or lack of teaching, every experience and every thought that went into the making of every decision that we make will be taken into consideration. Those who were taught more and had more opportunities for learning in a healthy environment will be held more accountable obviously. That makes sense.

I know that God exists and I know that He is aware of us. We are His spirit children. He cares about us and how we are doing. He is in charge. I know that He sent His son, Jesus Christ, to show us the way and to break chains that we couldn't possibly break on our own. He also loves us more than we will ever understand. Of course bad things happen sometimes. These things are allowed to happen not to hurt us or punish us, but to help us grow and become stronger and learn. We have all heard the addage: What doesn't kill us makes us stronger! It's so true! If we were spared from all of the adversity and hard lessons, we wouldn't be able to learn and grow as much as we do when we choose to try to learn from every experience, positive and negative, that we go through. What about the children, the innocent children, that should never have to experience suffering, molestation, abuse, etc. Well, I agree that this is the most tragic part of it all. But I also believe that God is with those little ones and somehow gives them some added protection. Those that hurt children are in sorry shape when their day comes to answer to God. Even the ones that seem to go unpunished here will one day get their just punishment. God's timetable is not always our timetable. We just need to believe that He can see the whole picture and knows the end from the beginning and all will be settled in the end.

We all have to go through our own individual life. There are countless things that I have gone through in my life that I feel just aren't fair. If I analyze them all honestly, I have to admit that some of those things happened as a result of choices that I made earlier in my life. This life has a purpose. It is meant as a time for learning and growth. Learning how to function, learning how to master our appetites and passions, learning how to help others along on their journey through this life. We are all in this together. Unfortunately as we get older and get out of elementary school, there is nobody there to keep reminding us to share, to learn how to get along, to keep our hands to ourselves, to not say mean things to eachother, to not take things that don't belong to us, and to be sure to take turns.

I have a strong belief in the power of faith and prayer. I believe in miracles. I have had them in my own life. I know God can make more of me than I could ever do on my own, so I try to keep Him involved as much as I possibly can and trust He can make a way when it seems that there couldn't possibly be a way. He's done it for me. He can put thoughts into my brain and feelings into my heart that help me in my life. He can comfort me and give me peace and hope. I rely on Him. I love Him and I hope to one day be able to kneel before Him and His Son and thank them.

Don't ever give up! Sometimes we can't see the whole picture because of the problems we are facing and those problems seem so big that they block out everything else from our view. We can't see the future because we have this big obstacle in our way. If we hold up our thumb in front of the sun, we can actually hide the sun from our view. Are we actually covering up the sun? No, but our perspective is temporarily obstructed and we can't see "the light of day" due to that obstacle right in front of us.

God is in charge! It's all part of His "Plan"! He's there, He's aware, and He cares! This I know. If we stay close to Him, He will guide back to Him and hopefully we will have gotten out of this experience all that we needed to, and all that He would want us to.

Thanks for stopping by!