I was recently asked what my planning process is like when I am working. I don’t know about you, but I have two ways that I like to stay organized.
First, like to write down my daily work tasks in a physical planner. Second, I have things as far as a year-out planned on my phone calendar.
Why do I like to do this? Because when there is a concrete plan in place, there is less room for error. Or at least there used to be. Since becoming a mom, now three months ago, I’ve learned that I have to sometimes let go of my plans.
This was something that God was teaching me before I ever became a mom, but He really drove the point home with the birth of my child.
Over the weekend, I planned to do all the laundry, put it away, clean the house and get some cooking and baking done that I have been meaning to do.
Because I have a child now, however, I had to seriously adapt those plans, and I had to be okay with it.
All laundry was done; however I had to bargain with myself and at least make sure all hanging things were put away in the closet. The clothes that need folding would have to wait.
I got the necessary cooking done, so there is are plenty of leftovers in the refrigerator, so my weeknight evenings aren’t spend preparing and cleaning up after meals. But I didn’t get any baking done – that would have to wait.
In both scenarios, before my sweet baby Silas, I would have been extremely bothered to not mark all items off of my weekend checklist. However, the Lord has been working on me (a constant work in progress) and helping me realize that my plans aren’t always going to come to fruition.
His plans are so much greater than any amount of planning I could ever do. He has shown me that time and time again in my life. It hasn’t always been something as small as cooking or cleaning. In fact, it was something way larger my sophomore year of college.
I had determined to go to college at one school and had not done much praying about it, or even considered if this were in God’s plan for my life. It was my heart’s desire, so of course He would be on board, right?
Wrong. It took transferring schools and an extra semester of college to make up for said transfer for me to be where God had planned.
Can you think of a time in your life when your plan for your life didn’t turn out how you hoped? I could provide a million more examples, both big and small. You would think by now I would know that, while my plans are futile, God in His omnipotence has a bigger and better plan.
We may not always know why He does what He does, and we may not always see a positive end result, but that’s okay (Something I have to remind myself over and over again).
I offer you no great words of wisdom. I can only share and hope to encourage you to keep seeking His will for your life over whatever plans you may have. And when plans inevitably go south, say it with me in solidarity, “Just let it go.”