Things Are Not Always What They Seem

I just FAILED my ASCPC exam!  I was not so happy with myself!   The one good thing was that I had lost 20 lbs since starting my weightloss plan.  I needed my ASCP certificate in chemistry to move forward in my Laboratory technology career and make more money.  I had studied for 4 months and came up 10 points short of passing.

Not only that, but my dating life was a joke, no literally.  It was almost as if any time someone asked me out for a date it was painful to say yes!  This is how I know God has a sense of humor, my dating life was proof!  My experience as a "fish in the sea" was, well to sum it up, whenever I got caught I was quickly thrown back to the sea or I wiggled away.  Sometimes I had wished to just go belly up, please someone put me out of my misery in this dating sea!!  Every person I ended up liking never liked me at the same time.  Every person who was interested in me was not for me.  The old adage "you have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find the prince" is very true, at least in my case.  Well, I never kissed anyone except for my husband.  I never got enough dates with one person to justify a kiss, haha!  Truthfully, there were not many suitors I had a desire to kiss.  It is hard not to feel like you are getting scammed sometimes playing the dating game.  You never can be sure if people are who they say they are.

At this point I was done with dating, ready to just move on with life.  "Face the music, the prince is never coming!"  I remember spilling my guts to Heavenly Father in one of the most heartfelt prayers one night. " I will just except life as a single woman and I will be happy. " So far there was no one that was right, nothing ever worked out!  I almost lost all hope.

Many of my college friends predicted that I would meet my "soul mate" at an Institute dance.  Major eyeroll, "Please, no way!"  I highly doubt anyone meets their eternal companion at an Institute dance.  If you don't understand my attitude here just watch Singles Ward the movie!  Don't get me wrong, I loved institute dances and I went to all of them.  I loved dancing and I had many friends who loved dancing as well.  They were fun, FOR DANCING, not meeting your soul mate, trust me!

After the matter of fact prayer about where my life was going, I decided to go dancing at a little place in Salt Lake City called Studio 600 with a good friend of mine!  It was country line dancing and swing dancing night.  That was the night I always went to, it was my specialty!  That night was one of the weirdest nights I have experienced!  I refer you back to my "fish in the sea" analogy, "please let's go belly up tonight"!

I met my husband that night, my friend found him first and was dancing with him.  I danced with him twice and when he asked for my phone number I gave him a big fat NO WAY, despite how adorably clean cut and handsome he was!  Yes I was attracted to him from the get go, but I had seen this before, there was no way this guy would be interested.  When he promised to not be wierd, that's exactly what I thought, "he was weird". In my mind him asking for my number must have been some kind of joke!  After I initially said no he said to find him before I left and give him my phone number, I guess he was giving me a second chance?  There was always the possibility he was a creeper, no thanks, been there done that! I was not giving my phone number to anyone that night!  It wasn't an Institute dance, but it was dancing!

When my friend and I made our way out to leave, guess who was sitting near the exit?  Yep "Can I have your phone number" guy!  He asked me why I didn't give him my phone number and he made me feel guilty.  He offered to walk us out to our car.  I honestly started getting a little nervous, what was he doing?  He was actually just a nice guy being a gentleman.  I gave him my phone number and thought, he'll never call!

We began texting and having friendly phone conversations.  After about 3 weeks of that he asked me to come to his Labor Day family party down on the farm.  I was kind of excited he asked me to come, but at the same time thought "this ought to be good, who has a family party on Labor Day"  especially like the one he described.  He told me I needed to come early to help him pick tomatoes, rotten tomatoes, for the annual tomato fight.  "This is going to be interesting", I thought.  "No lets not go to dinner by ourselves  and get to know each other better, let's go meet the whole entire family at an intimate gathering when we are still practically strangers!  Great idea!!"

So, I show up early to help pick tomatoes and find Jared in some old khaki high water pants, a long sleeved white shirt, and of all things a safari hat.  I later found out the hat was his Granfather's and we still have it!  My first and shallow thought was "Wow, this guy looked better in the dark!"  Well, he was after all preparing for a rotten tomato fight! This provided a good opportunity to talk and get to know one another.  He tossed a juicy rotten one to me and it squirted a little.  After the party I discovered I had been walking around all day with tomato juice all over my neck, and that was before the fight.

Well the rest is history, we are still together.  I still believe it is an absolute miracle that two people can find each other, fall in love and be happy.  It is a hard thing to do.

Jared was not really what he seemed.  Wierd? Yes he is a little, but not exactly what I was initially thinking.  This experience reminds me of a story I recently heard about.  Ben Taylor, met a supposed scammer on social media.  Joel, the "scammer" was looking for a business opportunity or some way to make money.  Ben, a guy who hates scammers, decided to try and scam him by playing along.  In the end Joel turned out to be a genuine kind man trying to support his family and help his village in Africa.  Ben gave him a chance and ended up teaching Joel basic photography skills.  Joel has taken many pictures of his village and Ben made them into a book.  By D Grace of God, their book has sold thousands of copies and they have profited over $10000.  This money has supported Joel's family and has helped with many improvements for his village.

When we give people a chance, great things can happen.  I believe in second chances as well!  Eventhough I thought Jared was wierd and I had no hope left for any kind of marriage plan, good things happened when I gave him a chance.  As Ben Taylor slowly peeled back the layers of his would be scammer great things happened!

Heavenly Father answered my prayers and gave me another chance.  He surprised me with an unexpected answer of hope.  It took me a long time to realize that though.  Isn't it funny that I met my eternal companion the same week I was giving up on finding a companion!?  There is that sense of humor I was talking about!  Because we have a loving Heavenly Father who constantly gives us chance after chance to accept Him and to repent, we too should give others a chance!

Who is it that you might need to grant a chance to?  Empower yourself and give someone a chance, or a second chance!