Off Schedule

“For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

 

I believe my need for schedules really became apparent during the five-plus years I did daycare.  I averaged 4-5 children at a time all under the age of 4 and then some before and after-school kids as well.  About half-way into this new vocation I started taking classes online, working toward the accounting dream I never wanted to admit I had.  Schedules are huge in my life, which means I have excellent time management skills (toot-toot).  However, there is a definite limit to my superhero abilities. I can’t have too much on my plate, even though I try, and if anything throws me off of schedule I am worthless and cannot function to full capacity.

 

This leads to my recent silence.  The classes I am taking right now are overwhelming hard and extremely time consuming.  Last week I had two big tests to take and simply thinking about how hard the tests were going to be stressed me.  On top of that our daughter got a part in the next children’s musical and the parent’s meeting and rehearsals started last week.  And, to make my life ever-more so complicated I discovered that in a fight between a partially opened can and my hand I will always loose, so my right hand was slightly out of commission as well.  I balance my life precariously on a very fined tuned schedule and last week I was off of schedule and, as previously noted, when that happens I tend to not be able to do anything. I got the basics down: kids fed and dressed and I went to work everyday if anything got done above that it was an act of God and I was very thankful to have Him in my life.

 

I know God has a schedule.  I don’t understand it and I don’t think I have followed it very well in the past.  Jeremiah 29:11 says that God has good plans for our future.  I wonder, if when we take our destiny into our own hands, if we throw that schedule off.   I have been thinking that maybe God has point A and point B picked out, knowing we’ll get to point B eventually, but how we get there is up to us?  I know with every bone in my body that God made me an accountant and I love it.  I didn’t get to college right after high school.  In fact, I just kept making babies!  But even though I may have thrown my schedule off I am still arriving at point B.  Even though last week was a sticky walk in the mud for me I still made it through and everyone around me survived as well.  So, when you feel like you have continually messed up the big picture remember God will always show you a way to point B.  We just need to put things in perspective, which means putting our trust in God, and holding onto the hope and promise that God knows what He is doing even when we don’t.

 

“So be careful how you live.  Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise.  Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.” (Ephesians 5:15-17)

1st Day of School

“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

 

As much as I did not apply myself in school I really did love it. I remember I would experience the same feelings every year the night before school started: nervous, excited, curious, and nervous again. I would fall asleep with butterflies in my tummy and wake up early to make sure everything was perfect before walking out the door. I do not know why I went through this routine. It’s not like I wasn’t going to sit in the same spot with the same people but it was a new school year and I was a year older. However, I also remember that once I sat in the first desk on that first day it was like summer had never happened or it was just a really long weekend.

 

God told me very early on what His plans were for my life I just didn’t recognize His voice. We didn’t go to church growing up and I am pretty sure I didn’t know what Christmas and Easter really were until my early twenties. And like any spoiled child my Father was telling me what He knew I was made for and snubbed my nose and refused to listen. God gave me a love of numbers. When I was little I would carry around a big calculator and just count. I could sit for hours just writing numbers. Math and Science were my favorite subjects. I took computer and accounting courses in high school instead of home-ec and I feel that instead of comparing new amazing things to the “best thing since sliced bread” it should be compared to Excel. I wanted to be an accountant but I have always had a fear of being a dork so I slacked off, didn’t apply myself, and made some choices that kept me from pursuing college immediately after high school. But, if God wants to move a mountain He will and if God has a purpose for you it will find you if you start to listen, which is what I had done.

 

Some people go in circles again and again searching for their purpose; seeking what they were made for but they never actually sit down and try to listen. No machine is made for nothing and God didn’t make us with out some sort of design in mind. I had fought my talents for a long while, and even when a soft voice was coming into my life I was still fighting. I found my answer in a Bible study in which I was able to finally accept my calling….if you want to call it that but I do love what I do and I have to wonder why I fought it for so very long. Now, I enjoy and dread finding my answers in God’s Word because it’s always there, whether or not I want to hear it. Look to God for your path and He will show it to you but be careful, working with God is no easy task but it is an amazing adventure.

 

“But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says.” (James 1:22)