Lesson learned: It might not be picture-perfect

My husband, Trevor, and I moved down to Arizona a month ago so he could attend medical school. I really despise moving, but with lots of help from friends and family, it ended up being not too bad. Except for the part when we had the "piano movers" move our piano into our second-floor apartment.

I put "piano movers" in quotation marks because when they showed up, we discovered that they weren't really piano movers. They were just two strong guys that were good at moving things. I was a little apprehensive about the situation, but they acted confident and they were there and we needed the piano moved, so we decided to let them do it.

Their first plan was to kind of strap the piano to their bodies and then just carry it up. That didn't work because there's a corner in the stairs. So then they decided to carry it up until the corner and then tilt it on its side to make the turn. That didn't work either. And then they decided to take the legs off of the piano, flip it upside down, and then carry it up. At this point I went into the bedroom, shut the door, and tried to think happy thoughts. A few minutes later, Trevor told me I could come out and I breathed a sigh of relief. There were a few scratches and dings on it and the whole experience hadn't gone how I had pictured it going, but we ultimately ended up with a piano in our apartment.

I'm guessing you've had a similar experience to this. The experience when you think you know how things are going to go, you feel like you have a plan, you think you know best... but then nothing goes according to plan. In the middle of it, it feels hard and confusing and frustrating and you might pray and ask God why things aren't working out for you. But then, with time and patience and faith, things work out. They always do. Every single time. It's not always simple or convenient or quick or picture-perfect but it ultimately works out exactly how it's supposed to.

Take my dating/marriage experience for example... It wasn't at all how I had planned. Trevor and I met online. That's not a cute story. We only dated for 9 weeks before getting engaged. That's awfully fast. I was traveling in Europe for 3 weeks of our engagement. You're not supposed to be thousands of miles away from your fiancé. We got married in the Bountiful temple. The Salt Lake temple was closed. And then we moved away from friends and family. I'm a homebody.

But the important thing for me to remember is that it all worked out. I found my eternal companion and we got married. That was the important part. That was the blessing. That was what we had both been praying for over the past year. And it happened exactly how it needed to happen. Heavenly Father knew I needed things to move along quickly so I could just make a decision, moved forward with faith, and get married, instead of having all the time in the world to second-guess myself.

So I guess my point is... don't get discouraged if you have to flip your metaphorical piano upside down to get it up your metaphorical staircase. Sometimes that's how life goes. Sometimes you go through 4 different majors, 6 years of school, and 2 jobs before you finally figure out what you want to do with your life. Sometimes you go through fertility treatments and adoption before you have a child. Sometimes you wait until you're 38 to get married. Sometimes things happen quickly. Sometimes things happen super slowly. But it's all okay because we know that God is in control and has a plan which means that eventually we will get up the staircase and the piano will end up in the apartment.

P.S. Credit for the inspiration of this post goes to my wonderful husband.