By Mary

When I was little, all I wanted to be when I grew up was a wife and a mommy (ok my first choice was to always live with my own mommy. So it was my second pick)

Here I am, twenty years old, married, with my baby playing on the floor next to me. Goals met, desires fulfilled, oh so blessed. I’ve got what I always wanted sooner than I ever dreamed. And occasionally I stop and ask myself, what now? Contentment is good, right? And mostly I am. God has more or less dropped all my dreams right in my lap. But shouldn’t I pursue something, look ahead to something. Should I let life just be?

There are moments still when my heart aches over memories past, wishing they could be again. Not to go back but to go forward, not to relive them but experience similar ones. Someday…maybe someday. Maybe someday we’ll be back in Colorado and I’ll have some more late nights with the dearest people in the world.

Maybe someday we’ll have more kids. A house we won’t leave behind every couple of years. Maybe we can work in another country together beyond the typical mission trip.
But are these the things I should work towards?

And then I remember something about contentment…when it comes with Godliness, it is great gain. And isn’t that the point really? Being like Him, glorifying Him? It supersedes every other goal and goes beyond all other achievements—marriage, career, college, motherhood, fatherhood, service—because it’s in all those things. That call is in every moment of every one of my days. When the sun is bright and Nick and I play on the floor with Gianna and her smiles flood without coaxing. When I’m lonely for life where I grew up or miss the sweet faces and voices I loved in South Africa. When I’m alone or with a crowd, busy or bored--from the moment I was first His until always and forever.