Days of Joy: Process of elimination

Right now I have several young friends that are searching for God's will in their lives. Well, what Christian isn't really. Several have expressed such frustration when I tell them to keep praying for God to show them His will. "But I HAVE and things keep falling through. I've seen no lightening bolt with the note attached. No doors flung open yet." I know that frustration. I've expressed it myself in the past. In some situations God has made His will abundantly clear to me. And that is amazing since I am so dense! Many times He has thrown people into my path SEVERAL times before I say "Oooohhhh, you want me to help THAT person!" (Can almost see God sighing and slowly shaking His head.) Sometimes a door has flung open so fast that I don't even know what is happening till I'm pushed through the door and halfway into the room before I can even reflect and think "Wow, this is definitely YOUR will, God!" But with much greater frequency, God's will is revealed to me in the slow agonizing closing or even slamming shut of all other windows and doors except the right ones.

Fresh out of high school with a straight "A" average....SO MANY windows and doors open. Would I continue with my goal of being a medical technologist? Should I continue further than that? I was smart and driven enough! A scientist? A doctor? I wanted to go away to college! SLAM! No scholarships. So I stay at home and go to Georgia State University...but I DO meet my future husband close by. SLAM! After 2 years of pre-med and working at a hospital I don't even WANT to be a medical technologist any more....now what? But I do get married, move to a quaint small town. SLAM! Pregnant...within one year? But we were going to wait at least five!!!

But four years after the birth of my precious son, I find out about homeschooling...which leads me to start a local homeschool support group...which leads to my husband and I opening a homeschool supply store for 3 1/2 years, giving Homeschool 101 classes, and personally mentoring many families in how to homeschool and raise a special, different generation until the Lord. I even started a second support group and became the homeschool "guru" of the general area. Then SLAM! After the birth of my fourth child (who never slept more than 30 minutes at a time for two years!) my health went downhill fast and we had to close the education shop. Now what?! Well, concentrate on homeschooling my four children while I work a little part time job which allowed me to throw myself into church work (library, drama, VBS, etc). THIS was my mission field and I was good at it! Mentoring younger women, becoming assistant Sunday School teacher ("Hey, I'm pretty good at teaching! I like this!"), becoming the best VBS teacher ever, organizing the best mission fairs ever, directing sermon starter skits, and even some Christian dinner dramas (What fun!) Then a window squeaks shut and I am pushed through at break-neck speed through a door as the founder, chairman of board, then director of a crisis pregnancy center! Then as a two-time director for the community theater! Wow! What an interesting life! And I have not even told you half of it! But you get my drift, don't you? The most interesting turns in my life happened not because God presented an opportunity to me on a silver platter; they happened because of a closed door or something that, at that moment, was a painful paring down of choices. A big "Road Closed" sign. So I took the turns and my life so far has been much more interesting and exciting than I would have ever dreamed! I don't for a minute think that it was an accident that I ended up married, a homeschool mom of four, in a small town less than a hour from Atlanta, GA. It was God's will ....even if I did have to find it out one closed door or window at a time....through the process of elimination.