For I Know the Plans . . . Part 1

When I was in high school, I had my life all figured out - a Life Plan. Now don't laugh, it was a pretty good plan. 

The Plan: 

- Go to college and become a nurse like mom

- Meet a great guy my junior year (my future husband)

- Get married the year after we graduate college

- Start having babies the year after that, I was planning 3 sets of twins, each set 2 years apart

- Be a stay at home wife & mom

- Live happily ever after 

Good plan, right? Have you ever noticed our plans are like building a tower with blocks? We can build and build and have the best tower, but one thing goes wrong with our plan and the whole thing tumbles like another child fell into it. So, we pick up our blocks, make the base stronger, still holding onto those same blocks. Using the same blocks, we always have to try and put the plan back into place. 

For me, I changed my major because I couldn't handle putting or seeing needles going into an orange, nuch less skin. Then I didn't have money to go back for the first semester of my sophomore year. I met my first realy boyfriend freshman year - he turned out to NOT be the guy I thought (lying, cheating, etc). My blocks fell and fell hard. I spent years scrambling trying to find them all so I could at least pull some of the "perfect plan" back together. 

Finally, I turned back to the only One who could help me figure out The Plan. In 1991, God spoke to my heart and told me to calm myself. He promised me a husband AND a family of my own. All I had to do was be patient, wait and work on getting myself ready for the special man He had for me.

Deep breath . . . so what do I do now? I surround my self with books, bible studies, friends, teachers and classes through church. I deepen my relationship with God. Learn and study. I became a proponent for Waiting vs Dating. I began to see that being single and never married was a blessing, a special time that I could minister to others in a way I never would be able to again.  

This time I made another list, with God's help. The list of 30 biblical qualities my future husband needed. Each characteristic backed up with at least one Bible verse. Honestly, I this was some busy work God gave me to keep my mind off making another plan (ha ha ha). 

God also had me make a list of 30 biblical qualities I needed to work on to become the wife for that man. The man He made just for me. Let me tell you, that was NOT a pretty or easy list to make. If I'm honest, those are things I'm still working on. 

I worked on the lists, worked at my job, volunteered in the church nursery, went to church as much as I could, had fun with my friends and family; slowly rebuilding that tower of blocks again. This time though they weren't the soft cloth infant blocks. They were the pretty colored, chewable plastic ones the older infants and toddlers play with. The ones that start to hurt a little when they fall . . .