I am a homeschooling mom of two school-aged boys and two boys under three. I also must confess that I desire for things to go my way which, if we think about the first line here the second sentence becomes quite humorous.
I want my way, but I have four children who also want their way, and isn’t that true of so many of us? We want our plans to work out according to our desires.
We aren’t so much focused on what God may be trying to do, His purpose for our life or even what glorifies Him but simply what gives us the most control.
Our way might give us a little control. Our way might make us feel content for a while. Our way feels easy. But our way does not connect us to others. Our precious notions do not necessarily keep us safe. Our desires often leave us feeling empty or wanting more. But God. God never does. His Spirit fills us with peace.
As a mother who primarily homeschools, I find myself scheduling and planning and dreaming of the perfect day/week, accomplishing so much and having virtually no stress or upset.
But that’s just not the way life works, is it? In fact, Jesus tells us with certainty that we will have troubles in this world. (John 16:33) As we look to other God-fearing men and women of the Bible we can see that their plans rarely came to fruition.
Job, Ruth, Daniel, Joseph, Paul, and Peter to name a few and yet, they were not forgotten nor were they were not left empty-handed. In fact, despite all that went so wrong in many of their stories they received much more than expected.
It’s not that the Lord doesn’t want us to dream or plan but He doesn’t want for us to make it our central focus point.
He has so much more for us if we would just learn to be flexible with what He might want to do instead of or through those things.
When a dear friend ended up in the hospital, my plan was disrupted. Her family needed help and she needed encouragement and support during her fight. I wanted to be there, but this turned out not to be a burden on me but a burden on my plans.
Some days schoolwork was scarce or screen time was elevated, my boys became overstimulated and overwhelmed by sudden changes in our routine.
There were a lot of high emotions through it all. This was not my plan but when I let go of what I wanted and gave up my desires to God, He gave me peace.
My friend did not survive but my broken schedule was not wasted. When I gave up my way, I found the Lord waiting to guide me through the very difficult circumstances.
While her death was not what I would have planned, I am aware that His ways are better than my own. This isn’t to say, we should never set goals for ourselves, dream or plan but simply to remember that we are not God.
I am not in control and my plans are second to His.
Through the upset in my agenda, I was given the opportunity to draw nearer to people I had been removed from for a year. I was able to spend extra time in prayer that I normally didn’t make time for in my ‘standard’ schedule.
When I gave up my desire for control and trusted God with the outcome I welcomed peace. It’s not a neat and easy five-step program, Instead, it’s a journey of continually giving up control and giving up your desire for everything to go your way.
Even in our everyday when little things don’t go our way, we can rest assured that His way is better.
Through Him, we can feel settled in the mundane and hopeful in the chaos.
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