How a Little Thing Derailed My Plans | Your Home For God

Hold Your Plans Loosely Because…

It’s the little things that are important in life. Remembering this truth when goal-setting for the year, month, week, or day, is essential. Gotta hold my plans loosely, because when I don’t, I’m totally blindsided by what happens, and stand there muttering to myself, “Didn’t see that one coming at all!” And that is exactly what happened.

I was in a big hurry. In an effort to get so much done, and on a roll, I worked a bit longer than planned before I stopped to make supper, and now I was late! In my head I could hear my mother’s voice–she’s been gone for years, but, you know how clear your mother’s voice can be in your head sometimes–telling me to slow down. Yep, I heard her voice so clearly…just after the accident. I shook my head in disbelief at what had just happened, thinking, “I couldn’t do that again if my life depended on it.”

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God directs my steps

 

 A man’s heart deviseth his way:

but the Lord directeth his steps. Proverbs 16:9

My Plans Didn't Work Out | Your Home For God

My Plans Didn’t Work Out

My “office” space is my daughter’s old bedroom, and it is definitely a work in progress. I have my mom’s old recliner sitting in one corner, a couple of bookshelves, and a painted antique table with one drawer containing office supplies sitting against the wall by the door. It’s a heavy little table, and has the printer sitting on top of it. On top of the table, besides the printer, there’s room for a cute rectangular basket that holds mailing supplies, and a tin container with pens, and assorted other office supply items in bowls and cute containers. 

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My Plans Got Derailed By A Little Thing

But, the rest of the room isn’t cute or finished at all. This room eventually will house all things family history and nostalgia. There’s a shelf near the ceiling along two sides of the room that I plan to use to place pictures, keepsakes, and memorabilia on, things too precious to get rid of, but that don’t fit the decor of the rest of my house. This room will be a step back in time, in a sense. Right now, it’s just a mess.

On one bookshelf are photo albums, old framed family photos from when I was a girl, diaries and journals, genealogy books, antique bookends I’ve collected over the years. On another bookshelf are all my cookbooks, for this room will also hold those. Photos, journals, cookbooks–all organized, and in one place. That’s the goal.

Not organized yet, though. Now, there are boxes, papers, and this-and-that sitting on the floor between the bookshelves. I sit in the recliner with my laptop on my lap when I work, and because I get cold, and it’s Minnesota, after all, I often have a fleece throw over my legs and feet. 

Maybe it’s not about me and my plans?

The day of the “accident” I was working away, and making progress, so I didn’t want to stop, and now dinner was late! I jumped out of my chair, set the laptop on the floor in front of the chair, the fleece throw fell off my lap, and with my arms full, I headed to the door and opened it, but then thought, “I’d better put my shoes back on.” I turned back and slipped my shoes on, which I had slipped off and that were sitting on the floor partly hidden by the fleece throw. Then, I turned once again, now in even a bigger hurry, towards the door. 

Suddenly time stopped. I remember I looked down at my feet, because they weren’t going anywhere! In that split-second glance at my feet, I saw my right tennis shoe with a corner of the fleece throw tucked into the back of it, and to my surprise, the fleece throw completely wrapped around my left foot and ankle. My feet were glued to the floor. But, alas, my body was about to go flying!

My Plans Didn't Work Out | Your Home For God

My Plans Didn’t Work Out

boy did My Plans get changed in a hurry

Before I knew what had happened, I hurled through the air, hitting printer table, door frame, and who knows what else, before landing hard in the hallway on both knees. I must have also hit my right side on either the door frame, or landed on my elbow as well as my arms, when I broke the fall, because I had an abrasion on my right elbow. The next few days I felt like I’d worked out with 100-pound weights!

 

Many are the plans in the mind of a man…or woman…

 

 Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand. Proverbs 19:21

After pulling my jarred body up off the floor, I saw that the reason I was glued to the place I stood was not only due to the fleece throw wrapped around my feet, but it also had become completely wrapped around the laptop cord!

Accidents are never in our plans! That’s why they call them accidents! The complete absurdity of this accident felt like a slap in the face, or a hard spanking, but, it was just a bizarre accident with no meaning. Or, was it. I believe things happen for a reason. So, a bruised rib, torn cartilage in my knee (the doctor’s tentative diagnosis a couple weeks later), and feeling like I’d been beaten up in a back alley, made me ask God, “What are You trying to teach me, Lord?” 

How a Little Thing Derailed My Plans | Your Home For God

How a Little Thing Derailed My Plans

My Plans Will Be Changed, But That’s Ok

I went in to the doctor a couple of weeks later, because after continuing on in my normal pattern of activity, actually working harder than normal, and being more physically active, I found that I could barely walk. Grabbing pain in my knee would often take my breath away. So I went in to see the doctor and found out that at least there was nothing broken, but I probably had torn the cartilage in my knee.

The timing could have been a lot worse, so I was grateful for that, but I was still really irritated by my sudden inability to accomplish all my plans! 

My Plans Didn't Work Out | Your Home For God

My Plans Didn’t Work Out

What Are God’s Plans For you?

As I edit this post in 2020, I don’t have to even ask this question! Have any big plans of yours ever been interrupted? Changed completely? Everyone in the world would answer yes to this question this year. And, I can’t help but believe that God is trying to get our attention. But, has He tried to get your attention in the past? Maybe due to a sudden illness, or financial difficulty–maybe a loss of a job–your plans to travel for Christmas to see family were ruined? Or something you’d looked forward to for a long time had to be canceled or rescheduled.  Maybe someone simply changed their mind.

Perhaps it’s the daily interruptions to your plans that drive you crazy. Do you feel like sometimes your biggest accomplishment in the day is just getting through it with your kids alive?!

The craziness of life with small children can be the making of a bestseller. I remember when my toddler put honey on the cat’s fur to see if it would make her more sweet! These stories can make for more interesting Christmas letters, but awfully difficult to live through joyfully at times.  Let’s take a step back, laugh at the absurdity of life, at times like this, and remember that God is Sovereign. Let’s try to see the big picture from His perspective.

Hold Your Plans Loosely Because | Your Home For God

Hold Your Plans Loosely…Because…

Might this Interruption to my plans be God’s Plan?

Are these interruptions or are they the perfect will of God for my life? Maybe this thing that is so frustrating to me, this interruption to my plans, is even the answer to my prayer for more Godly character in myself or my family! Maybe God intends to use them to grow my patience, dependence on Him, or to cause my child to come to faith in Him.

At the end of your life, what will be the important thing you accomplished? As we set goals, ending one year and beginning another, let’s ask God what His purpose is for our life, and what He wants to accomplish in and through us! He has created us and our family uniquely, for a purpose. He put within us dreams and desires. His purpose isn’t to make us miserable, but to bring glory to His Name through us! So let’s talk to Him about what He has in mind.

Maybe this thing that is so frustrating to me, this interruption to ‘My Plans,’ is the answer to my prayers–the thing that God will use to produce more Godly character in me or my family!

Wendy Gunn

My Plans Didn't Work Out | Your Home For God

My Plans Didn’t Work Out

It’s important, as we set our goals, knowing that the Word of God–the Bible–expresses His thoughts, to let it change our thoughts. He tells us to set our thoughts, hearts, and affections on things above. If we want to bear fruit and bring God glory, we will need to abide in Him, and have His Word abide in us.

It’s the little things that are often the most important. At the end of our life, the most important thing we accomplished may be the child we raised to follow Jesus Christ through the stops and starts, interruptions, and foiled plans that we call our days.

“At the end of our life, the most important thing we accomplished may be the child we raised to follow Jesus Christ through the stops and starts, interruptions, and foiled plans, that we called our days.” Wendy Gunn

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Have a Great Week Making Your Home For God

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