You've heard me say plenty of times that I love a good plan. Organization! Checklists! Schedules! Routines! All these things make life so much easier. When I go to bed at night, I want to feel certain that I got everything done for the day and to know exactly what I need to do when I get up in the morning. It's a wonderful feeling. Until a wrench is thrown into the wheels of all that good planning.
Being organized is a wonderful thing. Unfortunately, I have found that many of us who are excessively organized don't adapt well when our neat, orderly schedule is disrupted with unexpected intrusions. I know that I don't take kindly to it and sometimes even take it out on people around me.
Lately, I have been a great big grump because my life is not going according to my plan. My husband has been working from home a lot lately. My son is struggling with some of his classes this year. The weather has been uncooperative with my exercise plans. And it feels as if little gremlins are causing troubles in much of my day to day life. All of these things are interfering with the timely completion of items on my checklist.
It occurs to me, though... I'm not the only one with a plan. God has a plan and his is perfect. It would seem that his plan includes me spending extra time with my son talking about Chemistry and swapping out his literature plan to include a book or two that are just fun to read and don't make some grand statement. I think God's plan might include hubby and I spending more time together - which will mean an adjustment to my schedule. And sometimes it looks like he plans for me to spend a little time with a neighbor when I go out walking - despite the fact that I want to get back to finish my chores by some arbitrary time.
I think I get grumpy about these things because I view them as a distraction from what I had planned to do. Instead, I think I need to learn how to make room in my schedule for God's plans to squeeze right in there with my own - or, more appropriately, for my plans to squeeze in with his. Some days I might even get lucky and find that my plans overlap with God's. The more I give priority to other people over the exacting standards that I expect for my floors and laundry, the more I will probably find my plans overlapping with the Lord's.
You know, I spent a lot of time in December making the perfect planner book for 2016. I have no doubt that it will keep me on track with my goals and on time for my appointments. I'm glad I have that planner book. I feel like now I'm being called to spend a bit more time in another book - The Bible. Because, yes, we were made to work, but Jesus made it very clear that we were made to love. At this time of year it's so easy to get caught up in the work part because there are so many goals that we want to achieve. Let's make sure that we don't lose focus on all the people that need our love right now.
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