as God intended
- idiom
- We face each other as God intended.
Examples
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I have been working hard with everyone to build a community where we can finally live free as God intended.
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The flowers bloomed beautifully this spring, just as God intended them to.
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I said, you know, how could I be angry... ...when this is clearly as God intended for it to be for me?
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We should embrace life as God intended us to live it, free and joyful.
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They built their family home in the countryside, as God intended for a peaceful life.
Synonyms
Planned or seen as certain to happen
To happen as expected
Happen in the planned way
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase literally combines a manner marker 'as' with 'God' (agent) and 'intended' (meant or planned), so its meaning 'in the way God meant' is directly derivable from the constituent words. This compositional structure has close equivalents in many languages (e.g., Spanish 'como Dios quiso' or French 'comme Dieu l'a voulu'), making it immediately understandable to learners who know the parts.
Etymology
As God intended comes from a simple image of leaving things exactly as God wanted, like a garden left to grow by itself without changes. So, it now means doing something 'in the way it was meant' or in a natural, simple way.