This post will be featured next month on a really neat website that is designed to help wives with spouses in sports. So unlike my other post it is geared towards our baseball life, but I wanted to share it because the topic applies to anyone! And it’s a nice change because I had to keep it short and sweet. I know I can get a little lengthly at times 😉

Headed to our fourteenth baseball season with two kids and a very loaded down truck. Tens hours down with eight more to go today! I feel so blessed that our kids have no idea that being strapped in a car seat for two solid days could be borderline child abuse..lol!

And although this may sound like a nightmare to many, I always look forward to this time. I am forced to sit still for two days and try to mentally prepare myself for a new season filled with so many high and lows that no one can predict. Where will we end up? Will we know anyone? Will the kids adjust to more change? How will Brian adjust to his change? The list can go on and on with what “if’s”.

This morning I was thinking about what is the biggest thing that has helped me survive this emotional roll-a-coaster. And I knew in an instant what it was. If someone asked me at this point in my life what answered prayer has impacted my life the most it would be God helping me see things through His perspective!!

Spring training of 2009 was a turning point in my prayer life. We had our daughter who was one and I was eight months pregnant with our son. Uncertainty in my husband’s career was finally getting to me. One morning I was dropping Brian off at the stadium and the Christian radio station said something about choosing God’s perspective over our own. This struck me straight to the core.

I had always trusted that the Lord would put us where He needed us, but once you have a family involved it begins to be harder to look past your obvious circumstances. I had never been the type to compare Brian’s performance with others and I found myself doing just that to try desperately to figure out how spring training would unfold. I found no answers in this just more worry about things that were completely out of my control.

I have no idea why that morning I not only heard, but finally I believed that my circumstance didn’t decide my future, He does.

“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.” Isaiah 55:8 (NLT)

For the first time I had complete peace knowing that it didn’t matter how many people were fighting for a spot to make the team or how good the competition was because with the Lord anything was possible! Quickly my new prayer was me asking Him to only allow me to see things through His perspective. It’s amazing how fast He answers those prayers. And I still ask for this prayer daily! Some days I’m so on top of my game I only have to ask once and there are days where I have to ask every five seconds, but it always comes!

Now incase you were wondering what happened that spring training??? The Marlins made a trade the very last day of spring; this meant Brian was going to be the last cut. Of course my heart broke for him, but my new and clearer vision allowed me to find the blessings during this very big low. I was pumped at the fact Brian had almost made the team! And I got to go home to give birth to our baby boy two weeks later! God’s timing is always perfect and far better planned than ours could ever be.

“In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.” Proverbs 16:9

Right after our son was born Brian was called up and remained there the rest of the season!

I share this slice of Brian’s career because my hope is that you too can find peace and hope in all circumstances. God’s gift of His perspective to me hasn’t made all trials disappear in my life by any means, in fact the irony of this is we are pretty much in the same exact position this season and this time expecting our third child. But what it has done is strengthened my hope! This hope is what helps keep my eyes on the bigger picture and allows me to try my best at setting my priorities on what really matters….faith, family, and friends.

I will be the first to admit that I still have so much to learn, but getting to experience this blessing allows me to share it with you with a confidence knowing He too will answer your prayer!

My simple prayer for today:

Lord may your perspective help each of us to bloom wherever you plant us! I ask for this precious gift in your Son’s holy name, Jesus Christ.

Reading suggestions: because I like to talk too much I could write on this topic forever, but there is something far more powerful in spending time in the Bible and finding what He is saying to you

Philippians 4:12

Psalm 1:2-3

The whole book of Job- the story of a man who was faced with horrible trials of all kinds that was able to keep his own Godly perspective