Making goals with the Lord's help

This post deals a lot with my love of going to Mormon temples, but the concept of making goals WITH God can be applied to any even semi-religious person who believes in a higher being.
When Adam and I first started dating, we went to the temple.  It was one of our first "dates."  I was so glad that Adam shared my love of going to God's house.

When we got married, we chose to get married in the temple located in Manti, UT.  It was so beautiful and such a special experience for us.

The temple is a very special place for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and we are taught that we should attend as often as possible.  From the time that Adam and I started dating to the time that we got married, we had attended the temple every month.  We decided right there that we wanted to continue that.  So we prayed and told the Lord our goal.  We asked for help to be able to achieve it.

We were doing pretty good.  Sometimes money was tight and it looked like we might not be able to go that month.  Sometimes we were so busy that we had to drive the 3  1/2 hours to our nearest temple in DC late on a Friday night - going there and back in the darkness.  But somehow, the Lord always gave us a way.  We had told Him that it was important to us (and we knew that it was important to Him), so we had faith to go even if it meant tightening our belts in other areas.  He helped us find the time and the means to go every month.

Then near the beginning of the year (2013) Adam and I decided we wanted to teach English abroad.  We searched and searched for different programs and found the one that fit what we were looking for: in the republic of Georgia.

We started the application process and felt good about our decision.  We would be there for a full six months and would gain experience as well as have time to learn a new language.  There was only one problem: the nearest temple would be in Kiev, Ukraine - 27 hours away.

We thought about the reality of our potential teaching schedule and realized that we might have to put our goal on hold while in Georgia.  We hoped the Lord would forgive us.  But the Lord had other plans for us.

Several weeks later we were notified that Georgia had had a change in government and the English program had been discontinued.  We were devastated.  But it was really a blessing in disguise, and the Lord was about to show us that.

Adam and I looked for other programs for teaching abroad and one day we happened upon a cute little program in Machala, Ecuador.

The more we looked into the program, the better it sounded.  It was still six months, would get us the experience we needed, and help us better our already-slipping Spanish skills.  A little afraid, I looked up where the nearest temple was: just 3 hours away in Guayaquil, Ecuador.

I knew this was the Lord helping us keep our goal.  The temple was closer to us in Ecuador than it was in Virginia!  The Lord has continued to help us keep our goal and I know if we trust in Him, he will always help us with the goals we make.  Even more so if we make the goals with His help.