Planning Is Exciting

I love planning things. Whether I’m planning a get-together with friends, a movie or game night, a vacation, an event, or a party, or just planning out my day, it’s all exciting!

I have always been that girl who has everything written out. In calendars, in notebooks, on sticky notes… Everything I had going on in my life I wrote down.

Thinking about all the possibilities and dreaming about the future just makes me feel insanely happy. There’s just something about adding something to my calendar that just feels good. No? Just me?

SO MANY PLANS

Well, whether you’re a planner like me or not, there’s a certain excitement that comes with planning certain things. Like a graduation party, a wedding, or a baby shower.

We often have and create a picture in our heads of what our lives will be like. I know I did.

I had planned on being moved into my own place by now. I had planned on having my college degree by now. I had planned on having at least 100 Instagram, blog posts, and YouTube videos up by now. I had planned on being married by now and having kids in a few years. I had planned on having started at least 3 businesses by now.

I had planned on being a lot more financially stable than I am right now. I had planned on being an author with a published book by now. I had planned on losing more weight than I have by now. I had planned on having traveled on different overseas missions trips by now.

But none of that has happened.

BUT I DIDN’T PLAN THIS

I didn’t plan for quarantine. I didn’t plan for the months to fly by. I didn’t plan for January to suddenly turn into May and June.

I didn’t plan for it suddenly to be four years since my high school graduation and still without a college diploma. Yes, my journey was different and didn’t lead straight to college right after high school. But once that journey to a college degree started, I pictured myself invincible and able to finish every class early and with ease.

But I didn’t plan for the motivationless nights. I didn’t plan for having to leave college for a little bit. And I certainly didn’t plan for the Covid-19. The whole world is going through a pandemic and this was not something we had written in our planners.

But everything still happened anyway.

“There are many plans in a man’s heart, Nevertheless the Lord’s counsel – that will stand.” Proverbs 19:21 NKJV

Everything I had planned was possible. But it wasn’t about that. It just wasn’t God’s plan for me right now or in the timeline or time frame I made for myself.

THE LESS EXCITING PART

The less exciting part about planning is that we won’t always know what is actually going to happen in the future. We can have the picture-perfect situations in our heads, but we won’t always know what God has in store for us. We can plan and plan, but our plans are not foolproof. Our plans may not be what is best for us. Our plans are not always God’s plan.

There’s Nothing Wrong With Planning

Planning in general isn’t wrong or bad. It’s when we take tight hold of the reigns of our lives and never let go where we run into problems.

THERE’S COMFORT

Proverbs 19:21 comforts me in this: whatever God has planned for me is far better than any plan I could ever come up with.

Jeremiah 29:11 reminds us that God knows the plans He has for us. The plans we have for ourselves may not be foolproof, but God’s plans are. Our plans may not come to pass and that may be the best thing that happens to you.

Maybe we really should spend less time planning out every detail of our lives. As we look to the future, let’s start by going to God first. No matter what fails in our life, there is comfort in Christ, and knowing that He has a plan and a purpose for our lives. God wants to lead us and direct us in the way we should go. Let Him.

The first five months of 2020 may have flown by and my original plans may have fallen through. But I know what God has planned for me exceeds whatever I could have tried to possibly imagine.