I hope I am finding you well on this beautiful Monday morning. I know it's Monday, the most hated day of the week, but what a blessing it is to experience another day! Am I right??? Well, I digress. So, lately life has been throwing some curve balls at me, and you see I am a planner. I have a plan for everything, including the next 10 years of my life (I know I am getting way ahead of myself), and sometimes it seems like every time I have a plan it some how gets thrown off in one way or another. For someone who is constantly planning out every aspect of their life, from when I'm going to do my homework to how I'm going to "accidentally" run into my future husband in the cafe (just kidding about the future husband part), these "curve balls" are insanely frustrating. These unexpected things that happen in my life, needless to say, make freak out because I, Faith Abigail Bowen, am a self proclaimed control freak. I have this need to control every second of my life and every situation I find myself in because "it has to fit my plan," but I am learning that I cannot do that. It is simply impossible to control your life because God has a plan for life the life he has given you that you know nothing about. You don't own your life, it is simply entrusted in your care. Yes you have freewill, but I believe, no matter what you choose, God uses every situation and every decision you make to form into his plan for your life. In my opinion, God gives you the overall outline for your life, but you are in charge of filling in the details (like those weird character maps you use to have to do in 8th grade english that I personally hated doing because how do you grade me on my opinion? It makes no sense.. But I digress). The thing is, if God has that overall plan for you it is simply impossible to have control over your life... So why try and control it? Why are we so obsessed with making "our plan" happen instead of making "God's plan" the driving force in our life? If we try to force "our plan" for or life to happen , we are headed for disaster and heartbreak. Frankly, you cannot force things to happen in your life that aren't in God's plan. This is a fact I am still learning. It takes so much to give your life totally over to God and let him control it, but we have to. When God calls, we have to go. When God shuts a door, we have to go find the window he is opening. We can't force the door open, and we can't ignore him when he is guiding us to his plan. So we have to let go. We have to listen to what God is saying and not just do all the talking. We have to quite being control freaks in every aspect of our lives if we EVER want to reach our full potential in Christ. I know it's hard, but it's necessary. I know in my life, submitting myself to God's plan is a challenge on a daily basis, but I'm trying. My friends, I am challenging you to reflect this holiday season on God's plan for your life, and take a few minutes to listen to what he is trying to tell you, because who knows... You might just end up going places you never saw possible. So let go, let God, and don't ever stop being you.
Jesus replied, "You don't understand now what I am doing, but someday you will."
John 13:7
You come by the control freak thing honestly, it is on both sides of your family. I hope you are able to deal with it in as healthy a manner as you describe here. Having a plan is a great thing, but even better is having the ability to adjust when the plan doesn't work out exactly as expected. You seem to have that very valuable skill.
ReplyDelete