Well, THAT didn’t go as planned! This seems to be my mantra any time I pack a schedule for a few hours – even moreso a whole day or a week! This week has been a “crunchy one” for me – every day has been “crunch time” with a very full itinerary. On my “good days” I pray at the beginning that the Lord would help me get done the things He would have me to, and that I wouldn’t stress over the things that don’t get done. Much as I suspected, these days have not gone according to my plan.

“Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and He will establish your plans.” Proverbs 16:3

We may be tempted to use this verse to say that if we pray hard enough over whatever we set out to do, the Lord will make sure it happens just the way we planned. I don’t believe this is the case. That conjures up an image of me dragging The God of the Universe along by the shirt collar so He can bless the thing I bring Him to. Imagine! I have prayed long and hard over things before and they still didn’t happen MY way. What I realize almost every time, however, is that there was usually a desired outcome with whatever caused the deviation. The situation may not have been desired, but my attention either solved an issue, taught me a lesson, or brought me joy. Just this week there have been deviations for mentoring sessions, for helping friends in need, for traffic issues, for unscheduled family time, for being available to my husband, and when my alarm didn’t go off one of the mornings, I even got a few extra winks without a major fallout for getting off my schedule. I know you have your own lists that you are rolling through your head.

No, my plans didn’t go my way, but I am not sorry about it, nor do I feel like the interruptions were wasted time or energy. I feel the Lord was honored in (most of) the unplanned occurrences. He knows my heart, and I believe that the desire to honor Him will be what He establishes from our plans. My struggle is not to stress over the deviation and to be present in the encounter God has brought or allowed. This is where I need to plug in “Do not be anxious for anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7

I am not about to tell you that I don’t sometimes get distracted by social media scrolling, or shopping, or simply wasting time with what is not high in the “bringing honor to Jesus” category! We are all human and we (at least we ADD people) are going to get distracted or off-track from time-to-time. I believe God can redeem that, too. Even if it is a “valuable lesson learned” instead of a help towards our productivity. God knows who He is working with! 😊

“Commit to the Lord whatever you do…” This brings Him honor and allows Him to truly work in our lives and the situations we find ourselves in. “The peace of God … will guard our hearts and minds…” What a gift we are promised!! “In Christ Jesus” – talk about safekeeping!!”

Let’s try to lay our plans before the Lord. If something jumps in the way of how we wanted it to go, let’s look hard at how God is working in the re-vamped plan. It will be a blessing to our soul to see how He allowed us to take part in HIS plan!