The Way it Works

A year ago, I thought I knew the direction our lives were going. When I say 'our', I mean the entire family's. Yeah. Well....tip me over and call me a teapot. I actually had NO CLUE. I know, right??

A year ago, we were preparing for an overseas fellow to pop in for a visit. We were getting over the tidal wave from the year before. We were gearing up for C to graduate high school and go away to college. From that vantage point, I thought I had it all figured out. We had new kids popping in and out of our lives, relationships ending and beginning. I thought the way it works was....I figure it out and it would go that way. HAH!

Over the past year, I've learned that I actually KNOW NOTHING. That I can plan, presume and assume, but in reality...I know NOTHING! (thought that deserved to be said twice)If someone had told me a year ago that the plot was changing so suddenly and with such fervor, I would've laughed. I would've p'shawed my heart out and giggled like a mad woman. Heavens, if someone had sat me down and told me EXACTLY what was going to happen, well I would've just up and ran away.

There was no way to prepare for the way my life twisted. No way to figure out how it really was going to work. Just when I got into a groove, God shook me up and out of it. That's okay. I needed it. Matty and I needed to be shaken to the core of our marriage so that we would get out of the complacency groove. C needed to realize that sometimes her plans aren't God's. And that thing with the overseas boy? Well, it needed to be broken. He needed to grow and so did she. They just couldn't grow together.

If someone had told me that the way it works is NOT the way I expect, I'm not sure how I would've responded. I never expected a certain boy to come along and shake our girl so much that her whole life changed. I never expected him to love her in such a way. I mean, he was new to the party! I never expected her to love him...that's what really threw me. A year ago, I'm sure neither of them expected to be in each others lives....and mean so much. The way it was supposed to work was not this way. Serves me right...thinking I know the mind of the Almighty.

I know I say this a lot, but truly, it is God's world. He has planned and I can not presume to know what His next move is. And yet, I get stuck doing just that. I get stuck thinking I know the way it works and I'm just going to go about my business making it work that way. Guess what?! I'm working against Him at that point. I do believe that we often work within His plan and His will...however, I know that when I start to assume His plan I go my own way. And that is not good. That is not the way it works.

A year ago, I had no clue. I thought I knew it all. I look back and see where the ground work was being laid, the path set. I see the twists, the curvy places.

Now, I'm just going to go one day at a time. It's really the best way, the only way. I can plan...but I know that things can change in a heartbeat. That just because I have a plan doesn't make it so.

Where were you a year ago? Can you see where His hand has touched? Can you see where you thought you had it figured out and He just moved you away from that?? Keep watching, dear ones. And remember, He is for us....no one can stand against!

Stay tuned.....