Happily Ever After......????

I'm sitting here writing this blog with a dazzling new diamond ring glistening on my left hand. Yeah, I'm getting my happy ending!  In about a month, I will once again get to experience the joys and privileges of being a wife. I am so incredibly thankful for how God has brought me to this point and given me this wonderful new man.

And yet at the same time I have just had a conversation with my oldest daughter who is wanting to move in with her dad. I'm not sure I fully get all that's involved here. After all, I've never been a child of divorce, only the scorned wife. I don't know that I can ever really understand how hard all this has been on my girls. Actually, there's a lot of things I don't know that I'll ever be able to understand. I have come to recognize that I cannot truly see all this from their perspective so we have to be careful to listen to each other and show compassion. Still, now here I am feeling the full weight of this stuck-between-a-rock-and-a-hard-place position: Can I live with myself always wondering if I have pushed my daughter away with this decision? On the other hand, there is a lot at stake for the rest of us if I just walked away now so could I live with myself then either? The answer to both questions would have to be "no". So what do I do?  I thought we had worked through all of the obstacles, but now here at the 11th hour we've been thrown another one.

So fairy tale endings aren't necessarily all they're cracked up to be. Not sure they're ever even really possible in this fallen world. But one thing I do know for sure: I serve a God who time and time again has turned mourning into dancing and made beauty out of ashes. The fact that I will say "I do" next month is one more proof of this. So He can do the same with my daughter. All I can do is continue to move ahead with how He has led thus far and trust Him to "take care of the rest", to quote an old Keith Green song.
Lord, help me to be careful to see YOUR plan in this new obstacle. Give me that unselfish, unconditional love for my daughter that truly wants what is best for her......even if that ends up being the thing that will be the hardest for me. Help me to not place an unnecessary burden upon myself and allow guilt to gnaw away at me. Thank You once again for making my ashes into a thing of beauty and help me to see the "happy" in all this and not let the unhappy distract me from seeing Your blessings. Thank You that one day I truly will get my ultimate "fairy tale ending" when I spend eternity with You and there will be no more sin or sadness....EVER! Amen.