Unplanned Events

This past couple of weeks have been nuts! My Boy & I finished our homeschool year. We get to go to 4th grade next year! Girly Girl is still finishing her last couple of days at the local public school. They're really not doing anything constructive but must finished their state-mandated 180 days. 

Here is a list of events that have transpired in the last week or so:

•  We got a camper from my parents as a gift. It need cleaned before the children could play in it. They insist on sleeping in there this weekend. They were dragging blankets, pillows & arm-loads of toys out to get ready. Needless to say, I spent a morning cleaning a camper instead of cleaning the living room.

•  Friends of ours welcomed a beautiful little girl into their family, their first. Hubby is just smitten with her! He calls over to his buddy just to see how she is doing (them, too!). I made them a meal the other night. Hubby made the plans & didn't check the calendar. I had to skip Zumba. It turned out great because I got to spend time with the new family & got to hold the pretty girl.

• A tragic accident occurred within our community that has left many of us shaken, so now there was a viewing to attend for 2 hours. I can only give my regrets, prayers & love to these grieving people & yet it does not seem enough.

• A friend came over with her children to share lunch & laughter. We watched our combined 6 kids run around the yard. They would go from the wading pool to the camper to the trampoline. They would only stop to gather a few freeze pops & a quick drink before they were off again.

• Hubby hurt his back, again. He was lifting our air conditioner out of the box & slipped a disk. He spent the weekend in agony on the couch & in bed with prescribed pain killers & muscle relaxers.

•  I started to clean out the attic. (More on that in a later post.) While cleaning near the chimney, I discovered that I could see daylight all round where the chimney goes through the roof! On top of Hubby hurting his back on the eve of fixing the roof, we've had horrible storms pass through the area dumping a deluge of water into the attic. It didn't get fixed yet.

Some of these events were joyous! Some of them were laced with misery. All of these occasions have one thing that link them together. None of them were planned.

"In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps." - Proverbs 16:9

We can purchase the latest organizational gadget or planner & fill it with our plans for the day, week, month or even year. All it takes is 1 phone call, accident, or discovery to dislodge your whole schedule. 

"Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.""  - James 4:13-15

I'm not one to have everything mapped out. On the days I do decide to make plans, something unexpected happens. It changes the course of the whole day & sometimes days after. I generally sit & mutter under my breath all day about how I had plans. I needed to get these seemingly important jobs done. My selfish ambitions affect my outlook & then my attitude towards others. My my attitude stinks & so does my heart.


"...For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." - Matthew 12:34b

When my heart stinks, it comes out of my mouth as disgusting, rotten garbage. Sarcasm. Resentment. Annoyance. Hate. This is what happens. All because it didn't go my way.


At some point the Holy Spirit speaks to my repulsive heart, "Not your way. My way." It's at this point I usually breakdown in tears & ask for forgiveness. Clean my heart, Lord.

It stinks to have your perfectly good plans "ruined". I just need to remember that God is control of my life. Not me. I am his servant. Not the other way around. Next time my plans get rearranged or blown completely, I will try to ask God first to trust His plans & find the beauty in those plans.