I Have A Great Plan!

I Have a Great Plan!

“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD.“And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.”

Isaiah 55:8

I was running errands with our three-year-old son, who was happily chattering away in the backseat. Suddenly he announced, “I have a great plan, Mama!”

Driving along, I humored him. “Okay, honey. What’s your plan?”

“When we get home, you can give me some cookies,” he said. “And you’ll say I can have them and not ‘Wait till after dinner’—but you be nice to me and let me eat them, okay?”

Trying not to laugh, I said, “Honey, I am being nice when I say wait till after dinner, because if you eat cookies now, you’ll get a tummy ache and won’t be hungry for your good food.”

“But, Mom!” he wailed. “Don’t say no! No is not my favorite!”

“I know you want some cookies,” I assured him. “But trust me. It’s better to wait till after dinner.”

More often than I would like to admit, God uses my kids’ antics to spotlight how I have been relating to him.

All too often in my prayers, I approach God with, “I have a great plan!” Then I casually suggest to the sovereign God of the universe how he could accomplish my plan. And say (or at least think), “You be nice and don’t say no, God. Because no is not my favorite.”

But God, like a good parent, knows what is best for me. Sometimes he says no to my plans, not because he is “not nice” but because he has in mind something infinitely better for me. And his plans are not just great—they’re perfect.

—Jennifer Stair

God, help me to wait and seek what you have in store for me. Instead of telling you my great plan, teach me to trust in your perfect plan. Amen.