Knowledge in our Suitcase

Through the years of my blogging efforts I have broached the topic of forking paths many times and I'm sure some would think that surely I've plumbed the depths of this topic and have learned at this point to simply follow promptings no matter the questions and be excited for the adventure a head. Let's face it do any of us do that consistently? Okay maybe you do, but just when I think I've got this cycle figured out, something new comes.

A month or two ago I was encouraged by my professors to apply to grad school. Now for about a year or two I've been thinking a masters program was sort of necessary for my education to take me where I want to go. Yet whenever I thought about taking the GRE so I could actually apply it never felt right. Part of it might have been thinking about taking the GRE at the same time as planning a wedding and it would make sense that planning a wedding won. However as the months passed and I was married and graduation came closer the GRE never felt right, so I didn't do it. I focused on trying to build a strong foundation in my marriage and putting as much effort into school as I could late at night and weekends. Now those late nights are potentially coming to an end and the initial date to apply for grad school is long gone. With the world changing so fast I have no idea where I'll be in a year, let alone a month or two and now as the date feels long past to decide I feel the idea of grad school growing in my mind. Now that I have told everyone in the history department that I'm taking a year off and pondering my life I am seriously considering marching back to the office and finding what I need to apply and seeing if it is even still an option.

Many times in our lives we feel secure in our path we think that our life is laid out before us and we tell the world our plans, so excited for what is to come. Then as we proceed on that path, it doesn't fit, it doesn't feel right and we realize we need to reconsider our options. Then we face this awkward transition thing where everyone in your life starts asking you, why are you doing that? What's wrong with what you were doing before? How do you explain that you aren't scatter brained, but simply trying to follow the spirit? At the end of the day, it doesn't matter what the people around you think, it matters that you are right with the Lord. We need His help in this life if we are to reach our potential. He knows what is before us and He knows what we need to face what is coming. Some opportunities come to us that we think we can't do or service moments that feel so far outside our time and abilities that we want to say no, but in counseling with the Lord (that means going to him in prayer and accepting what He says with an "of course") He will teach you what you need to become the person you have covenanted to be which you can't be if you say no. I hope I will always remember the words of our sealer who said that if we would always accept the callings the Lord extended to us that we would learn all we need in this life, knowledge we could not gain any other way.

Sometimes the Lord puts forks in our paths because He knows there is still knowledge we need in our suitcase to travel all the places we will be called to go.