We all know the saying "everything happens for a reason," right? Well, I truly believe that it does.

For the longest time I believed that I had my entire life planned out how I was going to live it. From school, to when I would graduate, to getting married and starting a family and even where I wanted to work, but I didn't know at the time that God had other plans for me that were completely different from mine. Everyone has certain plans for their life. We plan out how we are going to spend each day, but sometimes the day that we planned doesn't go how we expected it to and I've learned that we should be thankful for that because the way that our day went, happened for a reason.

We need to learn to stop expecting things to happen a certain way and just live in the moment because none of us really know what is going to happen next. We hope for things, but sometimes the things we hope for never come. We want our life to go in a certain order, but sometimes the order we want it in doesn't happen because God has a better plan for you.

I've learned to break my habit of expecting certain things to happen and in that moment I felt a huge relief because that's the moment I started living my life instead of thinking about how to live it. I've stopped expecting my life to be perfect because it never will. I always wanted only good things to happen in my life, but where would I be today if I hadn't had bad things to happen to me at some point? They've taught me valuable lessons that I'm thankful for. They've taught me to always keep moving forward even in the times that I'm knocked down.

I know that sometimes we feel pressured to have our life planned out in detail because once we know what we're going to do, we feel an instant relief, but those plans always change. Yes, planning out some of your life is great, just don't expect it to go exactly how you planned for it too because sometimes that doesn't happen. The plans we make will probably happen, but it's usually in a way we never expected it to be. I'm thankful for everything that has happened to me this far in life and I'll be thankful for the things that happen to me in the future because it was meant to happen.

You may not understand it right now, but one day you will. I don't know where I'll be in a few years or even in a few months, but I know that God has a special plan for my life and even though I don't understand some of the things that he throws at me, I know that his plan is far greater than mine could ever be.