MY LIFE, HIS PLANS
Last week I spent a few days with my granddaughters, Mackenzie, Madison and Anabel. We call it “Grandma Camp” and they get someone on one time with Grandma, including sleeping in the same room at night. On Tuesday night, Madison was fast asleep, but Mackenzie was having a hard time settling down. Five-year-old Mackenzie crawled into the twin bed and snuggled up to Grandma, however, she had no intention of going to sleep. Mackenzie wanted to talk to Grandma about life. We talked about the fun things she had been doing all summer, her pre-school and Sunday school class, the swimming lessons from that morning and what we had planned for tomorrow. Then Mackenzie began to talk about her dreams and aspirations for the future. Kindergarten, puppies, her fifth birthday party, and Grandkids camp in August were all subjects of interest. We whispered and giggled and just as I closed my eyes, Mackenzie had one more dream to share; “When I grow up, I’m going to find a boy that’s not married, marry him and have my own house.”
I was taken back to my own 5-year old dreams. I wanted to be a bride. I dreamed of my wedding, the dress, the cake, my bouquet, walking down the aisle, the only missing ingredient was “the boy that wasn’t married.” Steve came along 13 years later to complete that dream. I had several other dreams, some came true, some fell by the way, and others were crushed under the weight of life. When I look back over my life, although I’ve been blessed, everything isn’t the way I had planned it; life hasn’t turned out exactly as I dreamed. I know very few adults that can say, as they look back over their life, “This is exactly what I had planned, my life is perfect and everything has happened just as I dreamed.”
As I began to meditate on this fact of life, I realized that life isn’t supposed to turn out the way “I planned” or according to “My dreams.” God always intended that I would go His way. According to Jeremiah 29:11, God reminds us, For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. If your life isn’t going the way you always thought it would, maybe God is keeping you from a huge mistake or disaster. The only people who ever say their life turned out just the way THEY dreamed and planned have not submitted to God’s plan and sadly, their eternity will not be as they dreamed or planned.
Isaiah 58:8-9 tells us, 8For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. 9For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. Mackenzie will find out that her dreams will change as she matures. She will face setbacks, disappointments, victories, and challenges to her plans. There is one thing she can be sure of as her life continues, if she will totally commit her dreams to God and His plan for her life, “It will turn out exactly as He planned and His dreams for her will come true.
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