Making Plans

We have a plan. It's not a 5 year plan or even a 1 year plan. Our plan doesn't involve having "x" amount of money saved in a specific time frame or having our dream jobs. It doesn't specify when we should be done having children or even how many children we should have. You see, there is a funny thing about making those kinds of plans. When they don't work out how you would like you are left feeling empty and disappointed. We blame God. Couldn't he see he was messing up our plans?

We have had those kinds of plans. It was our plan to get married right after Carly graduated high school and before she started university. It was our plan to have our first child, Aden, shortly after that. There are some plans that seem to come easily.

Then there are those events we didn't plan on happening. Mike getting a kidney stone RIGHT after the honeymoon was NOT part of the plans. Struggles with family member hardships weren't expected. Our plan for a second child didn't play out the way we expected at all. 3 miscarriages in less than half a year and then over a year and a half of nothing was definitely not part of OUR plan. Depression, anxiety, job changes early in the marriage - all not planned.

Our second child, Evalynn, is an example of the timing of two different plans clashing a little. I'm sure Carly didn't plan to have do deal with morning sickness and the worry of carrying a baby to term at the same time she was going to teachers college and doing her practicums. Andrew, our third child, was a plan that we weren't expecting at the time and possibly didn't feel prepared for. Surprise! First try after years of disappointment just shortly before. 

After 10 years together and 7 years of marriage we realize now that we have spent so much time and energy trying to create and balance our plans for our lives. We also realize that we have regularly been excluding someone very important in our plan making. I can only imagine God looking down on all of us with a little bit of heartache as we create our plans with total disregard for HIS plans. So here is our new plan.  Look to God, give him everything, and let him do with it what he pleases. He says "For I know the plans I have for you... plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (Jeremiah 29:11) Why fight against that? It is reasonable to assume that it won't all be easy to follow and there will be times that we don't understand where he is taking us with his plans but we choose to trust that his way is the best way.