"But he would that they should come forth even unto the land of promise"

Well, HH is employed!! And we're moving to the Great Plains. That's not something I would have ever expected or even considered. But we know beyond any doubt that it's exactly where we're supposed to go.

I won't go into all the details, but basically, one of my friends sent me an email kind of randomly a little less than three weeks ago. Since HH has been home and sharing my laptop I was hardly checking my email and I pretty much never responded to any email. But for some reason, I responded to her and that began a series of unlikely events that all led up to HH getting a job a very short two weeks later.

The long story short is that we know we're supposed to be in the Great Plains.

All of this reminded me of a concept I came across while studying my scriptures several months ago. This particular passage I'm going to share is from The Book of Mormon. For those who aren't familiar with it, The Book of Mormon is like the Bible, but details the experiences of the people living on the American continents from about 600 B.C. to about 420 A.D.

The following verses are from Ether 2: 7--

"And the Lord would not suffer that they should stop beyond the sea in the wilderness, but he would that they should come forth even unto the land of promise, which was choice above all other lands, which the Lord had preserved for a righteous people."

This is referring to the Jaredites journey from the tower of Babel. We know they will eventually end up in America, the Promised Land. Their journey certainly involved difficulties and trials (i.e."they were buried many times in the depths of the sea" v. 6; "they were driven forth, three hundred and forty and four days upon the water" v. 11), but when they finally reached the promised land they "did shed tears of joy before the Lord, because of his tender mercies over them" (Ether 6:12).

Sometimes I think we feel that we have come far enough in our own journey. We think we are in a good place and are content to stay there, but the Lord continues to push and try us. When we first moved to New England, I hated it. But after 3 1/2 years there, we really loved it. We contemplated making it a more permanent home. Then HH lost his job and we felt that the right thing was for us to head west.

That made sense because all of our families are in the West besides my parents. And even my parents are planning on moving west soon. We thought we were leaving New England so we could be close to our families and that felt right. But the Lord isn't suffering us to stop here. We know we could be very happy and comfortable here.

But the Lord is pushing us "onward" to the Great Plains. There are many things that we are excited for about this situation, but at the same time, I'm sad and nervous. I'm sad to not be as close to the people I love as I was planning on. I'm nervous because we're basically starting over. Thankfully, I do have one fantastic friend that we're moving close to and actually, my amazing seminary teacher from high school has moved to the same town we're headed to. Oh, the tender mercies of the Lord!

So, back to the scripture parallel. Even though there are many good things about our destination, I'm still feeling a little "pushed" away from my comfort zone and the place that seems "good enough" to me. When this happens in life, I think there is often a tendency to resist this and feel that life is unfair. However, the Lord is leading us on so we can reach our own "promised land". This is so much better than anything we can imagine for ourselves. I know that as long as we continue to recognize the hand of the Lord in our lives and to allow Him to guide us onward we will find glorious blessings He would have us receive.

I am so grateful for that knowledge! And I'm grateful that this passage of scripture that I've read countless times taught me this new lesson only a few months ago, so I can lean on it now. I know that Heavenly Father is very involved in the details of our lives. I know that He is watching out for us and that following His guidance will lead us to the greatest happiness we can know.

I know that there will be trials, too. They really are the best way to grow. That's not to say that I'm looking forward to them, though. I'm nervous that I'll have to re-learn everything I've been talking about here the last several months. But I know that I'll be okay. And I know that we're headed in the direction of great thing--even if they are from a very unexpected place!