“I can’t do this Lord! Please don’t ask me!” Tears and mascara smudged my pillowcase. “I don’t want to be alone! I don’t want to be one of those single parents! I hate being alone!” My mourning over a crushed relationship left me crying out to God. I had turned it over to God and now it was over, gone. The love of my life was gone. But God’s answer still was a firm “No”.

The first several months were a nightmare. Six months later I could at least breathe. One year later it was a bittersweet memory. I’d learned a lot about God, faith, and myself since “the break up”. I am amazed at God’s ultimate plan.

Our paths crossed through business. Even though she was trying so hard to be strong, it was taking all she had. This young mother had lost her husband, father and only sibling, her brother in a plane crash only 2 months earlier. My heart went out to her. As our conversation warmed, she admitted how each day was so hard to get through. I told her to hang in there, that one day she would look back and realize… she had survived. I thought back to my own pain of heartbreak only a year before.

Somehow she found my words soothing to her wounded heart. I questioned myself, why me of all people? I felt so inadequate for such a task. But she reached out to me and I felt God’s presence each time we spoke. She was going through several things I could identify with concerning living alone without the one you loved.

She asked if I ever got scared at night. I said “Yes, but then I pray, “Lord, I know I”m right where you want me to be at this point in my life, please keep me safe.” Her troubled brow relaxed, peace spread over her face. For the first time since my painful heartbreak, I felt it was used as a tool to help someone else.

“Lord, Thank you for giving me the opportunity for you to work through me to bless and help someone else along the way.”

“And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.”

Jeremiah 18:4