God's Plan

A blog post by Tonya Williams:

Six years ago, things weren’t going as planned (that is, according to Greg and Tonya’s plans). The plan was, that after being married a couple of years, we would hopefully start a family. However, after a couple of years (we were enjoying making memories as a couple- traveling, free time, etc.), we revised our plan to wait one more year, then we would start.

That 3rd year was up in June 2002, so we prepared to start our family. Since I was a teacher, the ideal delivery time for a baby would be in the summer, so September was the ideal time to begin trying for our bundle of joy. Months passed with no “positive” news. We visited the doctor. Thankfully, our doctor was very proactive and was able to quickly diagnose what was going on medically. Unfortunately, our ideal window of opportunity for our plan had passed as we were on to see a specialist for further testing. It was at this point we finally realized that we were not in control and that we would be okay as "just Greg and Tonya" and without children if that were His plan for us. Ultimately, as many of you know, God’s plan graciously involved children for us, but not in the time frame that we devised. It was in His divine plan and His divine timing that we became parents almost a year and half after we began trying to have a baby.

Fast forward over five years. This week in the mail we received further fulfillment of His plan. I received my renewed Tennessee professional teaching license in the mail. I can now teach through 2019 (that seems so far away!!). How do these relate? If I had had our first child in the summer of 2003 as we had planned, I would not have received that valuable document in the mail this week. You see, when I finished teaching in 2004, I had just completed my 5th year in my current teaching license. Unbeknownst to us, that was the exact number of years needed to teach to be able to renew a teaching license without having to complete additional course work. As it turns out, our plan would have required me to take additional classes to reacquire my license. God’s plan required that I simply complete a form and mail it in to the Tennessee Department of Education.

Here's The Point: We may get frustrated, mad, disappointed, discouraged or any other emotion when our plan doesn’t work out. But when you place your faith and trust in Jesus, He has a plan and He is working it out in your life whether you know it or not. Ironically, our oldest son’s verse for his Wednesday night class this week was: “I trust You, oh Lord!.” Psalm 31:14. Ask yourself, Do I trust You, oh Lord?