I’d Rather Have a Piano: Living in Plan B
Once upon a time, a young couple decided to get married and went shopping for an engagement ring. At the store, the woman spotted a positively gorgeous ring. “It’s perfect!” she exclaimed, and asked the shopkeeper if he would pull it out for them to look at. The shopkeeper noted, as he reached for the ring, “You have good taste. This is the most expensive ring I have in the store!”
Sadly, the price was much more than they could afford, so they left the store and continued down the street, sobered by their recent reality check. A few moments later, they passed by a music shop with a grand piano in the window.
“You know what?” the woman said. “I think I’d rather have an engagement piano.”
The man smiled, “You know what? I think I’d rather buy you one!”
So, the man bought his bride-to-be an engagement piano, instead of a diamond engagement ring, and they lived happily ever after…
Waiting for My Diamond Life
I’ve grown up hearing and telling that story over and over again, the story of my parents’ unconventional engagement gift. It was a practical lesson for me in not always getting what I wanted, and yet finding a way to make the best of it. Several years ago, as a single person, I came to realize that it was time to apply that concept to my own love life – or lack thereof.
The one thing I had wanted all my life was to fall in love, get married, and have a family of my own. (Okay, I know that’s technically three things, but stay with me.) In my “Diamond Life” I would be happily married with three or four kids at home by that point. But, while I had dated and kept my eyes peeled for Mr. Right for years, I was still obviously, glaringly single. One elderly woman at my brother’s wedding a couple of years before had asked me, “So, Laura, when do we get to attend your wedding?” Annoyed at yet another reminder of my undesired state, I pasted on a smile and said, “I guess when you find me a husband!”
Searching for a Plan B
Despite my offering that invitation to set me up to anyone who asked – and some who didn’t! – no one made much of an effort to help me out of my dating drought. God seemed to be perfectly content to keep my “Diamond Man” completely and totally out of sight. Some days I would whine, cry, and yell at God for this unfortunate series of non-events, and other days I would throw up my hands in defeat and scream, “Forget it! I give up! I’ll just die an old maid and deal with it!”
While I still desperately wanted to meet and marry my “Diamond Man” and live my wonderfully envisioned “Diamond Life,” I couldn’t make either of those things happen. In remembering the lesson that I can’t always have what I want, but I can look for a pleasing Plan B, I realized I needed to look for ways to live the life I wanted sans husband. Eventually, I was able to honestly look in the mirror and say, “I think I’d rather have a piano.”
Enter my own personal “Piano Plan,” stage WAY left…
Later that spring, I took one of the students I mentored out for lunch to celebrate the end of the semester, and we got to talking about our dreams for the future. Her major was one that would land her a nice, hefty salary at just about any company she wanted to work for, but the work itself didn’t seem to be quite as creative or as meaningful as she would have liked. The longer we talked, the more convinced I became that she needed to be a part of this Unity House dream a friend and I started dreaming about nearly ten years before.
The Unity House was basically just a dream for a large property with two houses on each end – one for me, and one for a good friend of mine, and of course – someday – our husbands and families. We’d all live together and work this fully functioning, organic farm. My friend would put on educational events about sustainable agriculture, and I would take in orphans, foster kids, and/or pregnant teenagers.
As I explained this concept to my student, she got more and more excited about joining us. It was exactly what she was looking for! And what a perfect solution for me! Not only would her well-paying career help us launch the Unity House in a very short period of time, but with two of us in the house to work with the kids, neither one of us would NEED to be married, as each of us had so often thought would be the one thing holding us back from living out that type of ministry. It was a totally new, totally unexpected option, but it could work. It may not have been the full-carat diamond ring I’d always wanted on my finger, but it sure sounded like a baby grand to me!
Seeing God’s Hand in the Waiting
It’s amazing to me how God works out these little surprises for us. It never would have occurred to me to just partner with another female who had similar dreams of taking in abandoned kids, instead of having a husband to partner with me in the vision. I could just see Jesus, my Bridegroom, up in Heaven saying, “I know you want a diamond, but I’d really rather buy you a piano.”
It should also be said that for my parents’ 11thanniversary, my dad bought my mom a HUGE, 5-marquise-diamond ring. It is probably the most beautiful ring I’ve ever seen. So, my mom got her engagement piano, and after 11 years of “faithful service,” as she puts it, she finally got a diamond ring even better than the original one she’d been eyeing.
As a single woman, I decided to hold out hope that God would decide to deliver an even better version of my “Diamond Life” after I’d been faithful to play out the “Piano Plan” He’d given me. You know what? He did! I met and married my husband just a couple of years after finally determining to live in my purpose and to the fullest without a man.
I had learned how to independently create a life I was proud of, one I knew God had ordained. And now I’m learning all over again how to build a life with a husband and a young daughter. Life takes its twists and turns, but if we are faithfully following God, it’s incredible how He always leads us exactly where we need to go!
As a former University Resident Director, Career Counselor, Certified Personality Trainer, and high school Spanish teacher, Laura has quite the “scattered” background — with one underlying theme: education! She writes to teach and inspire women on topics related to faith, family, and lifework. She is also a resume writer, specializing in resumes for moms, career changers, and new graduates.
