A Better Plan

I am excited for the new year. I have recently been reflecting on how much can change in just a year and how much I have changed in this past year. It has been full of ups and downs but it has taught me what is important and what I want to do with my life.

One year ago, I was a senior in high school, focused on nothing else but myself and the future I thought was what I wanted. I was caught up in A.P. classes and college courses. I still didn't even know where I was going to go to college yet, just that it was important and I had to start making decisions. We had a college day at school and I remember praying so hard all day for help in knowing where I should apply and what I should do. After going to several different presentations about colleges, I felt that I finally figured out my life. I was going to go to Utah State and it was going to be perfect. Everything then became centered around the next scholarship application that was due that week. I felt like my prayers were answered and it was all set and ready to go.

Little did I know that Heavenly Father had a bigger and better plan for me. The day after I had my huge breakthrough on my "brilliant" life plans, was the October General Conference. In which the age for missionaries was lowered. Which meant for me that I could go on a mission right after the summer I graduated high school. I wish I could say my first thought was ok never mind, let's drop everything a mission is more important and that is what I will do. But it wasn't.

I was so confused. I thought I had the "perfect" life planned out and I had felt so good about it. That was my answer, that was what I was going to do! I always thought growing up that I would be this amazing person that would always put God first and that I'd have no problem, it would be easy. But now that I was faced with the choice, could I really throw it all on the back burner? Did I love Him enough to leave all I knew behind to serve a bunch of people that I didn't even know?

I did know things happened for a reason, of that I had a strong testimony of, so why would it be different now? I decided that it wasn't, Heavenly Father's timing is always best. Even though I couldn't see the bigger picture I knew that He could. So I prayed for help and I knew that a misson was the true answer to my prayers.

Now a year later I am so glad for my decision to serve a mission. It has made me so much more than I would have been had I stuck to my plan instead of His. I know that Heavenly Father is in control and that He knows what He is doing. I am excited for this year because it will be an entire year that I can focus on Christ. A year away from the world. A year to lose myself in the work so that I can find the Me He wants me to be.