The Job My Father Missed Out On – a Story About God and Waiting

When I was in 5th grade, my father retired from the military. We lived in a small town I loved, and my friends were there who I wanted to go to middle school with. I was broken hearted about having to leave housing and move. Then my father was told about a job locally that he would be eligible for that he would be a shoe in for if he applied. My mother told him to apply. I begged him to apply. He said he would, but day after day, he did other things and didn’t get around to it until finally, the job was full, and he had no choice but to look to other states for work.

At the time I was crushed. I didn’t want to lose all my friends or the beautiful place that I lived. Then he got a job someplace I didn’t like, and I wasn’t happy about it. I remember driving down the road there for the first time and just saying to my parents, “Oh my gosh, it’s so ugly.”

So we spent the rest of my childhood in that state. Then I went to college in that state and came back home after college to look for a job. All those years I regretted getting stuck there and wished I could have been somewhere else.

Then … I met the most amazing man. He filled my heart with a joy I had never known. He brought me closer to God. He took care of me. He made me happy.

It took awhile, but when we got married I finally realized God’s purpose in what happened. I had thought God had nothing to do with it, and it was just my father’s laziness and procrastination. But if he had applied for that job and gotten it, I would have been living up there for high school and college. And I would have been there after college. And I probably never would have met my husband. Our daughter wouldn’t exist.

I didn’t know it, but God was working out everything to my good. I didn’t know my future daughter would only exist if we moved. I didn’t know where the love of my life was, and that my father letting a job slip through the cracks would allow me to meet him. I didn’t know, but God had a plan for my life, and I needed to move to fulfill that plan. It took 12 years, but I finally saw what God had planned all along.

Patience is so hard to cultivate and yet so important to have. Everything will happen in God’s timing and not a moment before. But God loves us and works things to our good. Sometimes, it takes many years to see His plan and the beauty of it, but eventually, you will.

This teaches me that I need to trust God more. There was a purpose for everything, and He is looking out for me. Are you one of His children? If so, He’s looking out for you too.