The phrase “God has a plan!” has become my mantra over the past few months.  It has sustained me through some fairly serious struggles and it has filled me with joy when things were going well, it has given me peace always.  It works in good times and in bad and it never ceases to be true. 

Many times over the past months I have wanted to throw up my hands and run away.  I have asked God “why, why, why?”  Why are you allowing this, why won’t you fix this, why can’t I have something else?  But as I kept remembering that God has a plan and as that idea, that belief, began to seep deep down into my soul, God began to show me why—because He wanted to use those things for my good and for the good of others.  God’s plan doesn’t take us around the hurt and heartache of life, it takes us right through them and it brings us out on the other side, REDEEMED!, SANCTIFIED! and with a story that glorifies God to all those around us.

As I have begun to live with the belief that God has a plan, He has begun to open my eyes more and more to see that plan in my life and in the lives of others around me.  And it ABSOLUTELY fills my heart with to overflowing with JOY!!  I can hardly contain it sometimes.

God’s plan has lead me to Arms of Love.  I had a very good job, working with wonderful people and doing something that I loved, but over time I began to feel like I didn’t quite fit there anymore.  Nothing had changed—same great people, same work, but obviously God was changing something in me.  I began to talk to God  and ask Him what it was that He wanted from me.  Was I supposed to be doing something more, something different? But He didn’t answer for quite a long time and many trials passed through my life and I struggled.  But then I began to remember and believe that God has a plan.  Some days that actually seemed to be true but others it did not, however, I kept saying it over and over, even when I didn’t really believe it.  As I continued to pray about my job, the executive director position at Arms of Love came to my mind many times, but that job was filled and I thought maybe God is just telling me to look for a job like that one.  I looked for other jobs but found nothing and I continued to struggle with things in that and other areas of my life.  Then one day, I found out the executive director position had become available.  I wondered, could this really be where God was leading me? 

I talked with people close to me to seek wise counsel.  I validated the fact that this position probably would not pay anything close to what I was currently making.  I asked a few people to pray.  And I told God and others, over & over, that if this was where God wanted me, He was going to have to work some pretty big miracles.  I received encouragement and discouragement from many people but finally I decided that I had to at least give God the opportunity to work those miracles and I mailed in my resume.

Several weeks later, I received a phone call and I found myself going through the interview process and ultimately receiving a job offer.  Now, there was a decision to be made!  My husband and I began to pray and we reached out ,to oh so many people, asking them to pray with us that we would make the right decision and that no matter what that decision was, that God would be glorified.   We took every bit of the week that was allowed us to reach our decision.  There were still miracles needed, one being that my husband who had been self employed for about 12 years would need a job with a consistent, regular paycheck in order to fill the gap that my lower income would create. But finally, at the eleventh hour, we agreed that it was the right thing for our family for me to accept the position with Arms of Love. 

Now, do you want to know how good my God is?  God has affirmed our decision in so many, many ways but one of the best was that the very next day after accepting the position, we got a call with a job offer for my husband and he started the following week.  The awesome part is that he hadn’t applied or interviewed for this job.  We didn’t even know it existed.  Now, he is working for a Godly man. 

If you would have asked me six months ago if any of this was possible, I would have laughed.  I would have believed it was possible but certainly not probable.  Now, I realize just how many of the struggles I had been going through were things that God was ultimately using to bring me to this place in my life.  I also, have begun to realize just how many of the things I learned & how many of the relationships I have built over the past 8 years are just what I will need to be successful at Arms of Love.

Please remember, no matter where you are in your life today, God has a plan for YOU and it is beautiful and you can trust it, even when it hurts.

Thank you for continued support of Arms of Love Ministries.  Through your prayers, donations of time, money, diapers and so many other things, YOU truly are the arms of love to our community!  May God be Glorified in all of our efforts!!

Blessings,

Trudy

Trudy has been married to Barry Bodenbach for the past 18 years and they have 3 beautiful daughters: Hannah (16), Sophie (14) & Molly (12).  They attend Westminster Presbyterian Church in Godfrey, which they think is the most awesome church family in the whole world.  Trudy worked for 8+ years at Alton Memorial Hospital, the last 4 years as the Director of Business Development where she was part of the hospital’s senior leadership team.  Her primary duties included physician recruitment and physician engagement, as well as service line growth.