Tuesday, February 26, 2008

God's plans vs. mine

This morning, I woke up with about a million and forty things that I needed to get done today. This Friday evening and Sat. morning, our church is hosting a "Loving Well" retreat and I am basically the organizer.
We found out yesterday afternoon, that Steven's uncle passed away suddenly. Please pray for his sweet wife, Edna, who is probably one of the most faith-filled women I've ever met.
I so hope this doesn't sound harsh but with this death, I knew that Wed. and Thurs. will be filled with being with the family and attending the funeral. Which in turn meant, that I could try and get as much accomplished today for the retreat or I could take my chances and wait until Friday and have to spend the day in a rush. I opted for the first. Because even though I'm the organizer of the retreat, I still want to enjoy it! Silly me. :)
So I dropped the kids off at school and headed back to the church. Picked up the things I needed there and then headed to Wal Mart. My intention was to purchase the food for the rereat, drop it off at the retreat cabin and probably get back in time to pick up the kids from school.
FYI- My kids' school is about 30 minutes north of where we live. Walmart and the retreat center are about 40 minutes south of us.
On my way to Wal Mart, I got a call from a friend, telling me that another friend had been admitted to the hospital and had suffered a miscarriage. I immediately knew that God was asking me, "Are you going to stay focused on your plans, or are you going to take the time and reach out to this friend?"
When I hung up the phone, I said this prayer out loud,
"Lord, give me your priorties today."
I let go of all the things that I felt like I just had to do and let the Lord guide my steps.
I was able to visit my friend, please keep her in your prayers.
I was able to get to Wal Mart and purchase the things we need for our retreat. Caleb took me out to lunch. And as we were headed back home, I was thinking, "we'll get home and have to head back out to get Emma and Dougie in less than an hour..... it's raining.... Caleb soooo needs a nap....."
Then I hear......
"my chains are gone, I've been set free" (that's my ringtone btw!)
And I hear the sweetest words from my hubbie,
"I'll pick up the kids from school."

A man's heart plans his way,
but the Lord directs his steps.
Proverbs 16:9



9 thoughts from Y*O*U:

Tammy said...

This post made me cry today because I have had SO MANY days just like that. We are so amazed at the hand of God and how intricately He guides our every step if we will only listen. Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to hearing all that He does through the retreat and will be praying for Steven's family!

Cheri said...

God is so faithful if we choose to obey...He will always give us what we need!

BethAnne said...

Praying for your husbands family and your friend.

Anonymous said...

Cheryl,

You are in for the best weekend! We did that retreat just last weekend at my church and I was also the organizer. Let me tell you girl, it is worth all the ork. You and your ladies will be so blessed! I will pray for you all to be surrounded and overwhelmed with the Love of God this weekend. I am praying that you will be so filled with that love that it can't help but overflow into the lives of others. Let us know how it goes.

Kelli

Anonymous said...

That would be work, not ork. I am such a (d)ork!

Kelli

Jenny said...

I love to read how God is working in everyone's life. It makes me much more aware and on the look out for how he is working in my life too!

Mocha with Linda said...

Great reminder that we need to let God guide our days. I'm such a detail person & planner -it's easy to get worked up over detours.

Theresa said...

I hope all goes well for you with the retreat. Thank you for that simple but beautiful reminder that we need to follow the Lord and what His priorities in our lives. Theresa

PS. The story made me cry also. I love to hear how the Lord moves us.

Stefany said...

Ijust happened to stumble across your blog today. What a great blog. And what I great post, I completely agree with your thoughts.I have had many a days as of late that really felt very much like this. About 2 weeks ago, I happened to go visit a neighbor and ended up delivering a baby in the strangest of circumstances (so strange that I can't really blog about it). What I am getting at - is that girl needed me that morning. Had I been focused on MY schedule and MY to do list, I never would have followed that prompting to go knock on their door.
I'll add yor family to my prayers today =0)