Best Laid Plans

The best laid plans of mice and men…

I remember the first time I heard this saying, I believe it was sophomore year when we read the book Of Mice and Men. At the heart of this book was the reality that no matter what our intentions our plans don't always work out. When you are in high school you don't care about the books you read, most of the time you tried to just get the cliff notes so you didn't have to read it. However, this quote came back to me when I read this verse the other day.

But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.

Psalms 33:11

My wife and I like to plan, we like to think ahead and we live by making a schedule. When we were dating I remember having lots of conversations planning our future. We talked about houses, and marriage, and kids. We talked about how many kids to have, and then we also talked about adoption. If that was something we wanted to pursue. We decided to have children first and then adopt, should be pretty simple right?

Sometimes we may have the best plans laid out, and God has a little different idea. Well we tried to execute our plan for years, and it was not working out. We were at a point of not knowing what to do, we had tried so hard to have kids, and experienced so much heart ache. Then one Sunday morning during a worship service we felt like the Lord was impressing us to adopt first. He changed the plan, what he had in store for us was a little different than what we thought. As I look back through the eyes of this verse to what he has led us through I have two thoughts:

God's plans are steadfast and will stand the test of time.

God had a plan for our family, he was building it according to his plan. I take great comfort in the fact that God had prepared from the foundation of the earth that I would get to be the father to my sons. That plan was going to stand firm. Every circumstance and season we find ourselves in has a purpose that God is working out in our lives. I think that this is something that we need to be reminded of from time to time. Even when circumstances may be confusing, his plan is standing firm and it will be accomplished. It does not matter the road you have to take to get there, if we seek him he will lead us.

His purpose is bigger than me.

His purpose is for generations, I am reminded of this all throughout the Old Testament when God talks about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Having walked through our adoption journey I see that his plan was not just for us but it was for the lives of our children. The family tree for my sons have completely changed because of their adoption into our family. Another way of saying it is that God's plan completely changed their family tree. Just like His plan, through Jesus, completely changed our family tree. We were adopted into his family, and now we are to continue the lineage of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob spiritually. His purpose is for you to live the life of faith that carries onto the generations after you. This convicts me, am I living my life to propel the next generation forward? Am I stewarding my today for the next generation?

This is what I know about the plan and purposes of the Lord, they are better than we could ever imagine and they are so much bigger than just me.