The adventurous life

I have always been a dreamer. As a little girl I spent lots of time imagining what my life would be like...my husband, kids, career. I would picture myself living in exotic locations married to prince charming. And as I grew up, the dreaming continued but became a little more realistic.

The one thing I always dreamed about and desired was adventure. I didn't want the status quo lifestyle. I wanted to experience new things, travel to new places and explore the "road less traveled". In college I really felt as though the Lord was calling me to something different, and I began to dream about missions. I remember having lunch with the Young Life director of South American countries and longing for the time when I could go. Nothing sounded more exciting.

There was one little problem...it just didn't seem to be what God was calling me to do. One of the evidences of that was a handsome guy named Michael. As much as I prayed that the Lord would take away this "distraction", He didn't. In fact, God continued to affirm this relationship and strengthen my feelings for him. I will never forget sitting in my apartment discussing the possibility of me going to South America with Young Life for 2 years when Michael told me to stay. I clearly remember him saying, "wait for me". And it wasn't in a jealous, prideful way but rather a prayerful suggestion that it just wasn't the right time.

So I didn't go, and the Lord had different plans for us. Greater plans. Fast forward about 11 years and here I am...a wife to a businessman, stay-at-home mother of 3, living life in the middle of the suburbs. Right back in the city where I grew up. A little different from the adventurous life I had planned, right?

But maybe not so different.

A couple of days ago we had a very chaotic evening (surprising, I know). Michael was away on a conference call and I was trying to get the 3 boys ready for bed. Levi and Ben had been very energetic so I turned on Veggie Tales in my room to get them to calm down a bit and so that I could do a few things in Graham's room and then get him to bed.

I was sitting in Graham's closet going through his clothes while he was crawling around the floor, pulling all the clothes off the shelves. Everything I would put up, he would remove. Meanwhile Levi and Ben didn't seem to be calming down and kept running in the closet, adding to the mess. The house was loud. Really loud.

And as I sat in the middle of the noise and mess, I felt a little stirring in my heart and it was almost as though God tapped me on the shoulder and whispered that this is my adventurous life. I could almost hear him say to me, "I have given you what you always wanted. I have given you adventure." l giggled as contentment flowed through me.

Tears rolled down my face as I fed Graham before putting him down. Have I missed it all this time? It's not that I have longed for some other kind of life or that I have regreted any plans the Lord had for me. I just thought my life didn't quite meet that life that I once thought I would have. But as I thought more about it, my life is definitely full of adventure. These 3 boys so close in age are more than an adventure!

"Delight yourselves in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart". Psalm 37:4

He did give me the desires of my heart. Not in the way that I had planned but in the way He had planned. He knew the desires of my heart because He put them there. They were put there for Him to fulfill.

For the last couple of days I have been meditating on His revelation and praying that He would show me more. The truth is that even if I had 2 kids spaced a nice 3 or 4 years apart, life would still be adventurous because life with Christ is the adventure. There is no adventure more real or fulfilling than that.

A suburban housewife wasn't what I pictured for myself but it's more fulfilling than anything I could have dreamed up. In the midst of laundry, diapers, playdates and tantrums, there is a great adventure going on and I don't want to miss a minute of it.

Heavenly Father, thank you for the adventure you have given me and for the adventures that are waiting. Thank you for loving me and giving me the desires of my heart. I could think of no greater gift than the privilege of knowing Christ and living His great adventure. Help me to find the adventures you have waiting for me each day no matter the circumstances I am in. And help me to instill in my chidren a desire to walk in obedience to you, that they may also know the adventurous life.