my plans vs. His Plan

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”  Jeremiah 29: 11- 13

I like to plan.  I used to think it made me organized.  However, now I understand that it makes me feel in control.  Hm...  

Funny thing about my plans:  they often get "messed up".  Of course by "messed up" what I really mean is that my plans don't always jive with God's plan.  That's when things get "messed up". 

I used to get very upset by a change in my plans.  I would resist with all my strength and move on in my own direction determined that it was the right way, only to come up against wall after wall of resistance.  Sometimes the Lord would allow it.  He allowed me to have my way.  Sometimes everything was fine, not great, not terrible. No  harm came to me or my family.  At least not that I could see right away.  Other times, there was a great deal of pain and trama that took us a long time to recover from. 

But here's the thing:  I have never regretted "giving in" and leaning into God's plan for me and my family.  I have never once regretted doing things His way instead of my way.  Oh don't get me wrong, I have worried and fretted about it plenty!  However, once I put my trust in the Lord and seek His will, there has always been peace, sureness and blessing.

I still make plans.  A lot of them.  however, over the years I am learning to listen to His voice.  I recognize it more often now.  Sometimes, I still get really invested in doing things my way without seeking His will.  During those times, He is there.  He sends friends and acquaintances to me to remind me of His will and to seek Him.  He points me to His Word and reminds me of His plans for me and His love for me. Sometimes, despite all of His gentle nudging and guidance,  I stubbornly try things my way and I fall flat on my face.  When I seek Him and His forgiveness, He picks me up every time, loves and forgives me and shows me the way. Then I grow and mature in my love and faith in Him.

You see even when we fail (and I mean epic fail!) God loves us and uses those experiences to illuminate His love for us and His plans for us which are infinitely better than any plan we could come up with on our own. 

I am so thankful for that!

In Him,

Kim

Graduation Day!

"The earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world , and all who live in it."  Psalm 24:1

 
The Lord put on my heart a while ago to have a celebration at the end of our school year.  And so today was our first ever Kindergarten Graduation Day! (We get to do it again next year with Tigger).  It started out as this small little idea and then, well, it seems God had other plans for us:-)

Initially, I decided to have a graduation day for several reasons:

1. I needed some incentive to organized the school work the girls did all year long.
2. I wanted the girls to be able to see how much they have accomplished and grown.
3. I wanted them to share with the family all that they have done and are proud of.
4. I wanted them to know how proud Dad and I were of them.
5. It gave us closure for the year, so that now we are all ready to move on to the next thing.

To prepare, I went through all of their lessons and put them in a binder for each girl. I had started out doing this at the beginning of the year but got out of the habit and by the end of the year all of their lessons were paper clipped together and stuffed in the binders. Then I pulled out their best art work and put it up on the school room walls. We also had up all the words to remember badges and the memory verse for the year. I put up for each girl, their 7 days of creation art work, 100's chart, life cycle paperwork and few other things that reflected their work from the year.

Then, we invited the grandparents over, prayed, had brunch, and invited them to sit for the show. Oh, also this morning I sat down with the girls and we came up with a name for our homeschool that they love.  This is something that has been on my heart all year to do.  We chose Stars of Grace Academy. That was so exciting.  For the first time in a long time both girls agreed completely.  They want to make t-shirts this summer, How fun!

Winnie recited all her Words To Remember for the year (all 26 lessons), sang the Days of the Week song, the Months of the Year song, the B-I-B-L-E song and the Water Cycle song.  Tigger was supposed to sing with her, but got cold feet at the last minute:-)  This was so weird and unexpected.  It really showed the maturity difference between the two girls and how far Winnie has come this year.  At the beginning of the year I could hardly get her to speak up to just me when she was reciting things.  Today she sang out loud and proud!

After the singing and me talking about My Father's World and how awesome it is, we let everyone walk around and view the girls work and look at their binders. The girls were so proud of all that they had accomplished, it was such a wonderful moment for Winnie. Her confidence soared, and she just seemed to grow up right before my eyes. sniff, sniff. It was kind of awesome and I am so thankful to God for allowing me the opportunity to homeschool my kiddos, teach them about His love for them and this beautiful world He has for us and about Jesus sacrifice for their salvation.

As I said at the beginning, I initially had my 5 reasons to hold a Graduation Day, but, again, God's plans for me and the girls were a little different.  As usual, His plans involved our hearts instead of my task list.  My heart is so full for my girls and our school, and so was my husbands.  I love that he was there today, he signed their graduation diplomas, and considers himself the "Superintendent of Schools".  It's been a hard road of several years of prayer to get to this point and I just want to hold on tight to it.  At the same time, I also want to shout from the rooftops that God is amazing and so good and patient and awesome and loves us more that we can possibly know. 

It was such a wonderfully sweet culmination of the year's work.  My hope and prayer is that this is an encouragement to you.  Maybe someone can use these ideas to create their own end of year celebration! 

In Him,

Kim