Sometimes the hardest thing to accept is that what you wanted so badly — what you prayed for, hoped for, and thought was finally your answer, isn’t actually aligned with your life.

Angel: She’s about to walk through that door.

God: Block it.

She can’t see what’s on the other side of that door. I can. And it’s not what she thinks it is.

– Jacqueline Whitney

Angel: But she’s been praying for this. She thinks this is the answer.

God: It’s an answer. It’s just not mine. She’s about to say yes to something I’ve been protecting her from for months. If she walks through that door, she’ll spend the next year trying to make something work that I never blessed.

Angel: She’s going to be disappointed.

God: She’s going to be devastated. But better devastated now than destroyed later. She can’t see what’s on the other side of that door. I can. And it’s not what she thinks it is.

Angel: So what do we do?

God: Close it before she gets there. Make it undeniable. Make it so clear that even in her disappointment, she can’t convince herself to force it open. She’ll be upset with me now, but she’ll thank me later.

Angel: And after?

God: After, I open the right one. The one I’ve been preparing for her while she was distracted by this one. She just has to trust me through the closing first.

Jacqueline Whitney is the author Held: A 50 Day Devotional For Parents and All That You Deserve.