Stop making plans

      If you're like me and you first read "Stop Making Plans" it makes the little bit of OCD I have in me flare up. I start getting nervous, my hands get clammy, my heart beats faster. I mean I'm the girl who every morning wakes up to write another of the million To-Do lists to help me plan out my day. I write goals that I want too accomplish for that month, goals I want to accomplish by next year, goals I want to accomplish in the next five years. I mean every young girl knows that they're going to be married to Mr. Perfect straight out of college, find a job they're passionate about, have their first kid by 26, and live in a house that would put Pinterest to shame.... right?

    I just came home from a two week visit to see my sister and her husband in Florida, and let me tell you when my family goes on vacation it's absolute insanity. It's fun, mind you, but we always are just doing things on a whim. Most times we don't have a plan or a set time we just go wherever and whenever we feel like it. The one part of me that loves spontaneity enjoyed this too the max, but the detailed planner part of me didn't. So I promised myself when I arrived back home I would finally get on a set schedule. And now I've been home a couple of days and that schedule has fallen apart. BIG time. I set my alarm for 8 a.m. to try and start waking myself up earlier to have more time to start trying yoga, and learn guitar, and practice the piano, and learn to cook a few more things.... the list goes on. Well the first day back I was exhausted from the flight home and promptly slept till 11, waking up to have my day waste away by having to unpack and organize everything from our trip. And then last night I couldn't sleep and ended up passing out on the couch at 4 a.m. only to wake up cranky at 10 a.m. So no my schedule was not going planned. And then it didn't help my obvious grumpiness, about not being able to get this schedule in place, when I kept receiving emails this from different blogs talking about "Why You Shouldn't Plan Everything" (Delight Ministries). It made roll my eyes, but still I intently read knowing God was trying to tell me something.

     And it's this I have to: Stop Making Plans. Now I'm not talking about making plans with friends to go out with them to the park tonight. No, I'm talking a little bigger. It annoyed and irritated me to not be able to grasp that perfect routine I've been wanting, instead it felt more like a big pile of chaos. When I'm not on a schedule, I feel as though I have no structure to my day and my life becomes a broken down clutter. But "it's all about finding the CALM in the CHAOS". Now that was what God was trying to get across to me. God didn't promise to me that life would go exactly how I planned it in my head, because being honest life NEVER goes how we think it should. But in this chaotic mess we call our life, that has plot twists and turns and ups and downs that we never see coming, we're suppose to still find peace and calm knowing that God is working it all for our good and His glory ultimately. Knowing us each better than we know ourself ("[God] knit [us] in [our] mother's womb" Psalm 139:13), of course He would know what's best for us.

    So this is a call to stop making plans. Not saying you can't have goals, have goals and set dates, but don't get so caught up in these that if they don't go right or how you wanted them too you throw your hands up thinking God must've made a mistake. Instead we are called to trust the plans He has for us: "And we know that for this who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28) It's a humbling thing to give up security of the future to God, to not know what lies ahead or what our next step will be but "The heart of the man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps " (Proverbs 16:9) we may think we have a plan set out for our lives, but it is not us, but God who even allows for that plan to happen. We have no control over our lives, but by trusting in the One who has total control over our lives He will without a doubt give you a life that is so much more fulfilling and amazing then one you could've ever planned yourself.

- Rachel