Answered Prayers

So you think you collect all of these letters behind your name and you've actually figured something out.  But the truth is you can have a whole alphabet soup behind your name and not actually know a thing.  I never really thought I had it all figured out...I am not that naive...but I thought I maybe had some things figured out.  Like the fact that I was doing what I was called to do and where God wanted me to be, but He tends to teach you big lessons in not so subtle ways.  Like the time He kicked me right in the gut and said okay your priorities are all wrong and I am going to need you to get it together.  I wasn't such a good listener when He had been talking and talking and talking in my ear letting me know this truth, but I continued to march along a path that He clearly didn't have planned for me.  So He taught this sinner girl a lesson in the best way He could.  He showed me that I am not all knowing...I am not the one who knows the plans He has...I am the one who is supposed to listen and submit and know when it is time to be what He is calling me to be.  So through a tough lesson and a painful process I ended up with today.
TODAY...Today was a good day...it was a day that I have prayed and hoped for...for a long time.  It was a day that a dream was realized...actually several dreams were realized.  I am so thankful...and so blessed...so blessed to be the daughter of a forgiving and graceful Father.
Today I taught my very first nursing school clinical.  I taught wide eyed...okay deer in the headlights...brand new nursing students...and at the nursing school that I was so lucky to graduate from.  The craziest part of today is that I taught two students who represented separate parts of my nursing career.  One student was a medical assistant when I worked my clinical coordinator job for pediatric neurosurgery and one was the sister of a patient who I was so blessed to care for from early diagnosis to her death not too long ago.  It was a very real and tangible reminder of why I chose to be a nurse...why I love what I am blessed to do everyday and for that I am so completely thankful.  Sometimes you just have to be reminded why it is that you have been working so hard and so long at your passion and your career.  Today was a very real reminder.  A real reminder that He knew that I needed.  I am so thankful He knows His daughter so well.
These last several weeks have been full of questioning and wondering and heartache...but in the end and in my mind the whole time I knew that He had a much bigger plan in place for me and I just had to be still and listen.  He never gives us more than we can handle...we may think we are weak but He is always strong and carries us through whatever situation we are presented with.  These footprints in the sand have been solo and they haven't been mine...they have been His...and He has carried me the whole way....not just these last several weeks...but for a long time now.
This crazy journey may not look the way we think it is going to look, but He always has a plan and it is always the best plan.
TODAY WAS A GOOD DAY!  Thank you Lord for your presence and provision...ALWAYS!