A house by the beach?

I saw my friend at the school gate last week and she had had her hair done the day before. She looked glamorous and beautiful. Don’t you just love leaving the hair salon, looking groomed and shiny? My friend and I had a little giggle though about the times we have gone to the hairdresser with a picture in our minds of what we want to look like when we walk out. We have given the hairdresser all the details of how he or she should cut and colour our hair, confident that they will be able to create the image in our head. But as we hand over our hard earned cash after they have finished, we would secretly cry inside because our hair looks nothing like what we imagined! Ever happened to you? As the owner of curly hair with a mind of its own, this is the story of my hair life!

This got me thinking on the way home about my life. I had a picture in my head of what it would look like. I have been working on this image since I was a little girl. For a start, in my dream life I am pretty sure I was richer and lived in a little cottage right on the beach! Uhm not sure what happened there but a terraced house in Greater London was not in the plan. Before I had the girls, I was convinced I would be a better mother than I am. In fact, I may have been the tiniest bit conceited about my knowledge of children! Hahahaha What was I thinking? The girls soon taught me a thing or 2 about what parenting really is- not anything like the books say and nothing like the picture in my head.

I would bet money (if I was a betting kind of person) that your life looks nothing like you thought it would. Like my life, yours probably has included more pain and loss than you thought it would. Perhaps people you love more than you ever thought possible have become ill and you have watched helplessly whilst they suffer. Did you wake up one day and realise you don’t actually live by the beach and chances are that unless all the jobs and schools are moved to the coast, you are unlikely to? And my moment of revelation- I most likely won’t own a holiday cottage by the sea either….. maybe a caravan or a tent?

But guess what? This would have seemed crazy to my childish imagination 3 decades ago but all the things I would not have chosen for myself have been the most positive. I don’t live by the ocean but I live exactly where God wants me. Here, in this little corner of the world, He has work for me to do. Not work that will make me famous or popular and it will never make me rich but it certainly makes me happy. My girls have taught me humility, patience and unconditional love because they are nothing like the books say and what I imagined they would be. And every minute of pain and loss in my life has strengthen me to be able to deal with every curve ball life throws.

What about you? I would bet money (if I was a betting kind of person) that your life is in fact exactly as it should be in order for you to become the person you will be.