God will give you the best
By Julia Fernandes
June 5, 2011
God always gives His best to those who leave the choice with Him. Following this belief, many years back when I expressed my wish to God that I would like to marry a guy whom you have chosen for me, I just did not realize how difficult and long waiting for God’s choice would be.
Through all the years the wait has been very tough, facing barbs from people around you, seeing the best years of your life just slipping by you, giving in to that occasional doubt that whether God has really destined somebody for you or not? And just when you are at the lowest point in your life, God sends subtle messages through various channels reminding you that He will, indeed, give you the best.
When you make a prayer and leave things to God, you have to give Him the full rein. When God is in control, nothing can go wrong. I learnt that when you truly leave the choice to Him, you also have to accept the fact that God follows His own clock that is no way similar to the clock we use on earth. So, what seems like terribly late to us is actually the best and perfect time in God’s watch!
Since God has made me, who better than Him could know who is best for me. The book of Tobit reveals how Sarah was destined by God for Tobias. "Do not be afraid, for she was destined for you from all eternity. You will save her and she will go with you." Tob.6:17 God brings a man and woman together and it is the Holy Spirit that keeps them united. Love by itself is not strong enough to keep a husband and wife together but it is God’s Holy Spirit that anoints a marriage and holds it together. You do a need third person to keep your marriage strong and intact, and that is God.
Mark Arndt, a US-based wedding photographer and a writer who has written wonderful articles on waiting for God’s best shared his observations with me. He said, "I'm a wedding photographer, and I shot two weddings last week that were a vivid example of the contrast between godly relationships and worldly relationships. The first wedding I shot was of a couple who had already lived together for at least a year, and somehow the whole affair had a sour flavor to it. Even the couple didn't seem all that excited about the line they were crossing; I guess Christmas is no fun when you've already opened all the presents!"
"The second wedding, though, is one I'll never forget. The bride and groom loved God and kept themselves pure until the big day, and the effect was just so beautiful to behold (their expressions made for some priceless photos, too!). The second couple just shimmered with joy, and I've seldom seen two people as in love as they were. Both weddings followed the same pattern on the surface, but in the second wedding all of the formalities, the white dress, the vows, the father giving the bride away, actually meant something. They weren't just meaningless customs; they represented something true and beautiful! The attitude at the second wedding was an excited, "Wow, it's finally time!" whereas the attitude of the first wedding was a murmured, "Well, it's about time," he noted.
Mark further expressed, "One can either take the wide road to narrow blessings or the narrow road to wide blessings. The vivid contrast reinforced my conviction that, though I am, indeed, still waiting for God to lead me to the right one, it is so much wiser to be going somewhere slowly rather than going nowhere fast."
To realize that you will love the person that God wants you to love and get married is the most magnificent feeling you can ever feel. As Mark beautifully puts it across, "I want that clean, sparkling feeling that the second couple had, and if that takes an extra few years or a few extra pangs of heartache now and then, it's a very small price to pay!"