Thank you, Mr. Gardner, for loving me enough to cut me down.

After many months of searching, praying, stressing, and trusting in the Lord Nate found the absolute perfect job!  We had to have a lot of faith and take some risks, but Nate and I worked through everything together and in the end could not believe how blessed we were.  He was offered the position of PR Coordinator at The Venetian and Palazzo, with a salary and benefits beyond what we could have ever hoped for.  He is the first and only member added to this team under his supervisor, which means he has a lot of responsibility but also that they liked him a lot and trust him enough to handle things.  I am beyond proud of him and we are so excited for this opportunity and for his future with this company.  He has been there for about a month and has loved every day of it.  He has worked with a few celebrities already including Tim McGraw, The Ellen Show, and he met John Elway and he has worked with VH1, Shark Tank, and other shows while they were filming.  I love having him home on weekends and most nights without worrying about whether or not he needs to be taking shifts at the restuarant.  He has some late nights every now and then but for the most part a normal 9:00-6:00 schedule.

Throughout this process of searching for a job, we definitely had our ups and downs.  One Sunday in church, just a few weeks before Nate got the offer from The Venetian, someone spoke on the Lord knowing what is best for each of us.  I think I bawled through the whole talk as I felt it was meant specifically for Nate and me.  I have read through the talk he referenced multiple times since that day, and I still can't believe how strongly I feel the Spirit while reading it and know that this was Heavenly Father's plan for us all along, we just had to be patient and learn a few lessons on the way.  The talk, by Elder Hugh B. Brown, can be found in its entirety here.  It is amazing, and if anyone is having a difficult time or feeling like their life is not going the way they thought it would or had planned, read it!  But the main point of the article is summed up in these excerpts:

A currant bush to his gardner: “How could you do this to me? I was making such wonderful growth. I was almost as big as the shade tree and the fruit tree that are inside the fence, and now you have cut me down. Every plant in the garden will look down on me because I didn’t make what I should have made. How could you do this to me? I thought you were the gardener here.”

That’s what I thought I heard the currant bush say, and I thought it so much that I answered. I said, “Look, little currant bush, I am the gardener here, and I know what I want you to be. I didn’t intend you to be a fruit tree or a shade tree. I want you to be a currant bush, and someday, little currant bush, when you are laden with fruit, you are going to say, ‘Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for loving me enough to cut me down. Thank you, Mr. Gardener.’”

Many of you are going to have very difficult experiences: disappointment, heartbreak, bereavement, defeat. You are going to be tested and tried. I just want you to know that if you don’t get what you think you ought to get, remember, God is the gardener here. He knows what He wants you to be. Submit yourselves to His will. Be worthy of His blessings, and you will get His blessings.