He will go to any lengths

This is Sydney.
And I met her in...Sydney.

But, here's the thing.
Sydney is from Springville, Utah...45 minutes south of where I live.

And yet, I met her half way around the world while she was on a little vacation in Australia and happened to attend the TIME OUT FOR WOMEN event while there.

She told me that all the girls in her ward had read my little book and had been impacted by it and they would just die that she got to meet me (whenever anyone says that to me it always makes me laugh. I think when people do finally meet me they think, "hmmm. really?). I told her I would love to meet them. And thus it began.

Long story short, I ended up at the Hobble Creek 14th Ward last Sunday night with a group of girls and their moms. I've never talked to a group who knew who I was before I spoke to them. I had certainly never talked to a group of girls who had already read/studied the book. Because of that, it completely changed the message I was able to give. It changed the place I was able to begin.

And it was one of those moments in my life when I knew I was right where I was supposed to be. I so needed the experience. These girls were one of the finest groups of girls I've ever been in the presence of. They were good and strong and faithful. We had a really sweet experience together.

An experience I really really needed to have that night.
And it was because of where THEY were in their lives.
It was all them.

The bishop stood up after and bore a sweet and powerful witness of the power of what it was I was trying to teach...what I feel so passionately about sharing with young women...and I felt like God Himself was talking to me. And I needed Him to talk to me.

The whole night felt divinely orchestrated.
And I was deeply grateful for the experience.

Today at Church I was doing a little bit of self-evaluation.
I'm learning some things about myself that are uncomfortable but necessary.
I'm at a place where it's time again to push outside my limits and grow.
Oh, how I don't enjoy that.
But, God knows...and I know...that it's necessary in order to get myself where I need to be.
Where I want to be.

And during a really sweet testimony meeting, I was reminded of the experience of last week and how interesting it was that I had to go all the way to Sydney, Australia to meet a girl so I could have an experience in Springville, Utah.

And then I realized I didn't.

My email address is in the back of the book.
One google search and you can find me (and the other Laurel Christensen who is a famous audiologist...which was my minor in college...totally irrelevant to this story and yet interesting, don't you think?).
Plenty of people just call Deseret Book direct to get in touch with me.
That ward could have tracked me down half a dozen different ways to come ask me to come speak.

But, that's not what happened.

And the spirit taught me a powerful lesson as I heard, as clear as day, this:
"God could have had you connect with those girls in Springville some other way. But, He chose to do it this way. Because He wanted you to know He will go to any lengths to give you what you need."

I believe in a God who keeps His promises.
I believe in a God who cares more about our happiness than we even do.
I believe in a God who orchestrates the details of our lives to get us where we need to be.

And I believe in a Father in Heaven who will go to ANY LENGTHS to grant us the desires of our hearts

I believe in that kind of Father.
I know that Father.
I trust that Father.

And I trust He will go to any lengths.
Any.