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This morning, my parents came into my room at 7 am, arms full of presents for my 16th birthday. At one point durning the present-unwrapping, I opened a card that they had given to me. It said "Rebecca, Best wishes to someone special on your birthday!" and there was an arrow from there that pointed to the side, where my mom had written "Understatement! You are most special and precious to us! Happy 16th birthday! Love, Mom & Dad". Now, in very small print under that, she had written "Jer 29:11" And, being NO sort of Bible verse wiz whatsoever, I looked up at her and asked, "What does that say?" She smiled and answered, " 'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.' "
Now, later today I went to see a movie, and as always with fantasy movies, the movie got me thinking, which is not always a good thing in my case. I consider myself very rational, but I also have a gigantic imagination, one that sometimes makes me question my sanity, and those two sides of me clash very often. You know, with hormones and all you get all these strange ideas. I've always longed for... I dunno... something special, I guess. The words Peter Petrelli on Heroes said always pop into my head. "Do you ever get the feeling like you were meant to do something... extraordinary?" See, that's how I feel sometimes. I guess that's why I connect to that show so much... but back on topic. Whenever I feel like that, though, my rational side always shoots through. What if I'm not brave enough? I'm too scared to ride a roller coaster with loops, so how can I face real danger when it comes? I always wish for some grand adventure, but when real struggles come along, and thankfully I don't have many, but when they do, I break down and don't know what to do. And still more questions, like why do I have this longing for something, and what is that longing for? I've been told that when people want something, what they really want is God, but some fill that hole with things like drugs or sex. But I don't do any of that stuff, and I've been a follower of God since I was little, so why don't I feel complete?
Well anyways, by this time I was back home. After a while of surfing the web, I couldn't stand it anymore, so I reached up to the shelf above me and grabbed my Faith Journey book from my sort of "Sunday School" class. I flipped to a random page and started reading whatever Bible verses were typed on it, looking for some kind of answer. Well, those verses were all about how we should confess our sins, and do good, etc. They didn't seem relevant at all, and I was starting to think that this "God will tell you what you need to know if you read the Bible yadda yadda" might be a bunch of hooplah, for me at least. Still, I decided to keep looking for any kind of verse that would help, or maybe just to clear my mind, so I flipped a few sections back to another random page. And there it was. At the top of the page "Jerimiah 29 :11 'For I know the plan I have for you,' says the LORD, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.' " I read it over again. Mom always says that when Jesus had something important to teach, he would repeat it over and over to his followers. Well, alright, God, you made your point. I felt a smile and mouthed the words "Thanks, God."

So, if I'm not the only one that's felt this way- like there's something great that you should do, something more to life, just remember: God has a plan for you. You don't need to worry about it, because He has planned your success, not pain, and will give you the hope you need, and a future to look forward to.