Castles vs. Cottages

I heard a conversation recently that I want to remember.  Forever.  It was a great reminder.

When Tanner got his mission call to Tucson there were a few people that asked him if he was disappointed.  To be fair, he could have gone anywhere in the world and there are lots of missionaries going to lots of exotic places.  Our nephew is on an island in the South Pacific.  Several friends are going to South America and learning new languages while they are there.  One of my best friends just had a missionary return from Japan.  Another friend posts pictures on facebook regularly from her son who is serving a mission in Paris, France.

I understand the question.

One young man from our ward came to him after he opened his mission call and said, "Tanner, are you at all disappointed that you are not going out of the country?  Because when I go on my mission, I want to go out of the country."

Tanner paused for a moment and said, "Well. that's the thing.  It's not really about what you or I WANT."

IT'S NOT REALLY ABOUT WHAT  YOU OR I WANT.

I smiled when I heard him say that.

He gets it.

Sometimes I need a reminder too.

IT'S NOT REALLY ABOUT WHAT YOU OR I WANT.

More often than not, It's about what we NEED.  

Sometimes it is about what our 
Heavenly Father NEEDS from us.

I can think of many experiences in my life when My Heavenly Father had a different plan for me than what I wanted.  Where and when I graduated from college.  When I started having children.  (It took five years of trying!)  Callings I didn't really want to do that stretched me in ways that I needed to be stretched.  Friends I needed to open my heart to and learn things from.  People I needed to forgive.  Sacrifices of time I needed to make for others.  Trials I had to endure.  Faith I had to build and rely on.  

Perfect example:  When I was 18 I thought I had met the guy of my dreams.  I just assumed he would be the one that I should marry.  I was convinced he was the one for me.  But Heavenly Father had a different plan.  Now 25 years later, I am so glad things worked out the way they did.  Brent is my soul mate and best friend.  I can't imagine my life without him.  I'm so glad I prayed about that decision.

Our lives, when we really consecrate them to Him and covenant to follow what he has planned for us, and submit our will to His are not really about what we WANT.  

I love this from C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity:

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”