Rejoicing comes in the morning

The night before my trip to Europe I was kind of freaking out. I was nervous about traveling without anyone that I really knew. I was nervous about being away from my parents for longer than I ever had before. I was nervous about being homesick. I was very, very worried and basically bawling my eyes out.

Before I went to bed, I read my Bible, as I do every night. At the time I was working my way through Psalms and I was reading 1-3 chapters every night. That night I was on Psalm 30. I was crying as I read the words of Psalm 30:5, "Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning."

It was amazing. I felt God with me in that moment. I knew that he had planned things out so that I read that verse, just when I needed it that night. This knowledge gave me strength. God gave me that verse to comfort me and that reminded me of his omnipresence in my life and reminded me that he would always be there for me, even when I was far from family and friends.

The words of the verse also brought me immense comfort. They were just the words I needed- You might be sad now, but happiness will come later. You might be crying and homesick tonight, but once you're in Europe you will experience great joy. These were the exact words I needed, they gave me hope and let me see that there would be happiness and joy and wonderful experiences once I got to Europe and got over being sad about my family.

After I read that verse, I wiped my eyes, wrote it on an index card and didn't cry another tear until I hugged Momma good-bye at the airport. (God also gave me a wonderful comfort in the lovely Anne who I barely knew, but who put her arm around me and let me hang out with her family after Momma had to leave. I repaid the favor when her family left :)

Once we got to our hostel we had been traveling for about 24 hours and we were exhausted. We were annoyed because we didn't have storage in our rooms like we were supposed to, we were annoyed because our towels were small and our rooms were tiny, etc, etc. My roomies and I were getting upset and homesick and wanting to leave before our adventures even started. I pulled out my index card and read it to my roomies. I set the card out where we could all see it that night. I reminded them that while things might seem bad that night when we were jet-lagged and exhausted, they would get better and we would have wonderful adventures together, once morning broke.

I was so grateful that God had given me that verse so that I could share it with my roomies. I'm not sure that they were all very spiritual people, but they could see the truth in the statement regardless. It truly brought us peace that night.

It was one of those awesome moments that I always hear people talk about, when God teaches them lessons they need through the verse they read. I had never experienced it before this. It gave me such peace and assurance in God's plan for my life.