Rachel & Leah

Once again I am amazed by Orson Scott Card and his ability to think of how in the world things might have happened in the Bible the way they did. How would Jacob possibly mistake Leah for Rachel on their wedding night and how it could all work out okay. He truly can write to your heart and open your eyes. I think the thing that I learned most from this book though is truly how we are the leaders of our own destinies. That often times we pray for the things that end up happening and little do we realize that was what we were praying for the whole time. Not only that, but how important it is for us to "choose" to be happy. Leah, spent practically her whole childhood being unhappy and causing everyone to be miserable and feel bad for her. The interesting thing is that she never realized that it was her choice - she always thought that God was the one who was punishing her and that her life was meant to be that way. How often I am like Leah. How often I don't know how "to walk with Him" because of my choices. What a difference in her life when she realized that she could and needed to change and worked to rid herself of her weaknesses in her thinking. What poison we can be to ourselves sometimes - killing our inner, spiritual person. When we truly are walking with God, as Leah became better at doing, that is when the pride, the jealousy, the hate, the pure selfishness can leave us and we can be the person that we were created to be and fulfill our divine destiny.