Finding my Happily Ever After

Twenty years old. This is the time when you’re supposed to start figuring out your career plans, finding your potential spouse, interviewing for internships, becoming an adult. Society has pounded that ideal over and over again into our minds that we feel as if we aren’t “normal” if we are not at that point yet. And that, my friends, is a SHAME.

I know personally as of late I have started making the joke to my friends saying “IF I get married” rather than “WHEN I get married,” and we all snicker and joke about it. Deep down, we all hope that isn’t our reality for the future. Everyone hopes to one day be swept off their feet by their “true love” and live happily ever after. Isn’t that what we have always dreamed of (and are always told from a young age to be true)? You see so many engagements on social media and you dream about what yours may one day be like. We put so much value on status, thinking that one day we will reach this point where we can TRULY be happy. Becoming a wife. Becoming a doctor. Finishing college. Gaining an abundance of wealth. Getting the best and greatest new thing. In our minds, once we reach this goal we have set for ourselves—BOOM, we’ve made it in life. We have fulfilled our dream and that’s it.

This is where I was utterly amazed by wisdom from such sweet friends. In the midst of focusing on determining my worth and goals from what I have heard from the world, God knocked me off my feet and reminded me of HIS ultimate purpose for my life. The other day, I was talking about hoping to one-day reach a status of becoming a wife, gaining my degree, and finally feel like I have reached my purpose as a human. (You know, one of those moments where you want to be completely right and just have everyone agree with your pity party.) One of my friends tells me, “You know, you don’t have to find the ONE to have your happily ever after, Mary Katherine. Your happily ever after begins once you decide to serve in your eternal purpose.”

That hit me. I had never thought about that before. Because we live in the here and now, it is so easy to only focus and prioritize that reality. In all actuality, we aren’t here to live for the “here and now.” As believers we have a purpose. We are called to expand His kingdom.

Matthew 28:18-20

“Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’”

Acts 1:8

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem (“your hometown”), and in all Judea and Samaria (“your nation”), and to the ends of the earth (… the whole world).”

When we surrender to the Lord’s calling (ultimately HIMSELF and serving Him), we have reached our path toward our Happily Ever After. Yes, some of us will experience the joy of marriage. Yes, we can feel accomplished serving in our desired career. HOWEVER, these temporary blessings will not ever be completely and perfectly fulfilling or joy-giving like the love of Christ. HE is the one our heart longs for. HE is the only perfect love. The ONLY goal of this life. One day, those who have given their lives to him will rejoice in their Happily Ever After for all of eternity.

Oh, how I have found my joy in Him and how my heart longs for that reunion of praise!