After my bad breakup, I prayed for a long time for my ex-boyfriend to come back to me. I will not sit here and tell you that I am a good Catholic. I don't go to church every Sunday, I have sinned and I forget a lot of things that I was taught in CCD and Sunday school. When I don't understand or things are out of my control, I turn to God. It gives me comfort that, hopefully, someone is listening.

I will tell you that God is my last resort though. I know that sounds bad, but I am a firm believer in the fact that one must do everything in their power to better themselves or the situation first. Sometimes though, it is out of your hands and that's when I turn to the big guy above.

I prayed for a long, long time for my ex to come back, for things to get better, for it all to change. Every single night for months, I would pray right before bed. I apologized for only turning to Him when I needed something. I bargained with God, telling him I would go to Church more often and I would be a better person. Most nights I felt bad for praying for my ex to come back to me. I'm sure he has much bigger issues to tackle, but I didn't know what else to do.

Then one day, I stopped praying.

I know that sounds bad and makes it seem like I was going back on my promises to God. I believe that God works in mysterious ways and that even if you don't understand what is happening in life, he sees the bigger picture when you can't. When you're so heartbroken and just sad all the time, it's hard to see the big picture.

So in a way, God answered my prayers.

Instead of bringing my ex-boyfriend back to me, God brought me something else. Something I didn't see coming and something I didn't want for a long time.

God brought me strength.

Now, it may sound stupid that I didn't want strength during this time. Truth be told, I wasn't ready to be strong. I wasn't ready to move on or give up on a relationship that had been over long before it even ended. I couldn't see the bigger picture when obviously He did.

Stop praying for them to come back to you. Pray for strength, for hope. At the end of the day, the only person who will ever truly love you unconditionally like no other human being, is yourself. Pray for that person, pray for you.