So, I’d like y’all to do something for me today, please. Raise your hand if your life has gone according to plan.
Um … okay, we all know I can’t see your raised hands, but I’m also willing to bet that not a single one of you raised your hands.
Am I right? Of course I am.
Life rarely lines up with our plans. Maybe some of our plans come true, but usually we’re pulling Plan B out of our back pocket. Or we’re wishing we’d sketched out a Plan C. Or we’re staring down unexpected circumstances and thinking, “This? This is my life?”
There are times we have to evaluate how long we keep working the plan — because sometimes we’re supposed to fight through the obstacles, the disappointments, and keep pushing the plan until it happens.
But then there are times we have to abandon the plan. We have to realize sticking with the plan is going to lead us in the wrong direction. Maybe we’re dating the wrong guy. Working the wrong job. Pursuing the wrong dream. (It happens.) All our stubborn determination to stay with our “life plan” is stealing our life.
Life is often waiting for us past the plan.
In Your Words: When have you abandoned your plans and found your life waiting for you?
[ctt template=”8″ link=”LnNod” via=”yes” ]In Others’ Words: Looking Past the Plan https://ctt.ec/LnNod+ #InOthersWords #quotes #lifechange @bethvogt[/ctt] [ctt template=”8″ link=”D9mCI” via=”yes” ]”We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” #quotes #EMForster @bethvogt[/ctt]
Comments 13
Love this post, Beth! You know that my life has definitely not gone according to plan, but God has prepared, pushed and prodded me over to a life this better than I could have imagined.
And in order to get it, I had to stop mourning the life I lost and embrace the one I gained. Your quote is perfect!
Author
Angie: I think there are seasons on mourning the life we planned. And I think that is okay. But then comes the time of embracing the life waiting for us, and discovering all that God has waiting for us in our unexpected, unplanned life.
I was not aware of this good quote either. I love the ones you come up with (and you). Yes, God does give unexpected but rewarding turns in terms of letting go of the life we had planned. I was born in Vancouver, WA and the rest of my family have continued living their lives there in a small radius. They are reasonably healthy and happy, nothing much out of the ordinary, but God has unended and redirected me a number of times and in the process added so many blessings. Now in my grandparent (I will not say sunset) years, if you had told me I would become a happy property owner in Mississippi I would have said you were daft (as my British friends term it). By such changes, edits, plot twists, rewrites in our lives, He keeps us fresh and writes a better overall life story than we could ever imagine ourselves. I am very thankful.
Author
You, my friend, live an adventurous life. It is not the life you planned, I know, but oh — the places you’ve gone and the people you’ve seen — and the places you will go and the people you will see! And you embrace it all with such enthusiasm! 🙂
My hand was definitely not up!
That’s why a verse in Proverbs is one of my favorites: Man plans his way but the Lord orders his steps.
Author
Such a good truth, Gail! Thanks for sharing it today!
Had my life gone according to plan, I would be a wildly successful novelist living on Maui, driving a vintage Maserati, and married to a supermodel with silicone…well, never mind.
But then, the dogs here now, most of them would be dead, and that’s enough for me to say that now is better.
Author
Andrew — how you made me laugh today … and yes, your life today has brought comfort to many — and I’m not just talking about the dogs.
Thanks so much, Beth.
I often wonder what my life would have been like if I’d stuck to God’s plan for me. But thank goodness he can take my mistakes and bring something good from them.
Author
Amen, Pat. Amen.
Yeah, well . . . most of my life hasn’t gone according to plan. Being married at 18? Nope. Try 28. Having a baby by 30? Um, nope. Try 36, and not the way I planned. But, in so many ways, my life has turned out differently in a very good way. God’s given me an amazing husband who provides opportunities I never would have dreamed of when I was a girl. And my two boys? I love ’em with all my heart. I had no idea how much motherhood would change and deepen me.
So, yes, I probably have drafted Plans O,P, and Q to get here, but I wouldn’t change a thing.
Author
So well said, Jeanne. So well said. We’re all probably on Plans O, P, Q … 🙂