Trusting God With Our Best-Laid Plans

I was happy to see a familiar face behind the customer service counter as I hopped into line at our local Hobby Lobby. This sweet young lady had checked me out many times, and because I was planning to return unopened refill paper packs for a teacher’s planner I purchased a while ago, I thought she might give me some grace for at least an exchange.

As the weight of the crumpled plastic bag carrying the paper packs grew heavier, my guilt for failing to use the planner past the first two months of the school year returned. 

This beautiful, thoughtfully designed planner embodied my hopes for neatly balancing homeschooling with a newly added teaching role and efforts to resurrect my freelance editing career. I thought I had all the stickers, goal-setting prompts, and color-coded roadmaps I needed to accomplish my mission. 

Yet when my turn came, I quickly shifted the blame: “This planner just didn’t work for me.” 

I had a stack of sealed refill paper packs to prove it. 

What I didn’t want to admit is that I had stopped using the planner because life-disrupting storms had pulled me so far off its pages. I had been caught off guard by the grief of a near-empty nest, a shelved freelance career, and resurfacing physical anxiety symptoms that wouldn’t subside without medication (after I’d been medication-free for 18 months). 

I stared at the re-bagged evidence riding home in the passenger seat and continued to blame myself, wondering why God had opened these doors of opportunity in the first place. Didn’t He know I wasn’t going to be capable of managing it all, despite my best-laid plans?  

Later that week, a familiar proverb (Prov. 19:21) redirected my attention to the One whose plans never fail: our trustworthy God. Although there is nothing wrong with making plans, the Lord reminded me that I still need to put my trust—and those plans—in His hands and surrender the results to Him.

We can make many “good” plans—like using our gifts to serve Him and others—but we must hold those plans loosely. When tumultuous circumstances become direction-shifting storms, our best-intentioned plans aren’t stormproof. 

However, God doesn’t need our plans to hold firm in order to accomplish His will. As King Solomon reminds us, His purposes will always prevail—no matter what we plan or don’t plan for.

Even though the school year was fraught with challenges that tossed me far off course, God’s good plans for me—and His trustworthy character—had not changed. He was with me in the storms, He sustained me when my plans failed me, and He worked through the trials I experienced to deepen my faith and develop perseverance.

Friend, we can trust God to sustain us through every course-altering tempest, because only He can ensure we still land exactly where He intends us to be. The destination might be far from what you planned for, but you can trust Him to fulfill His purposes in you and through you right where you are.

Questions for Reflection:

1. Why do you think it feels empowering to buy a fresh planner?

2. Do you feel defeated by the stack of partially filled planners gathering dust on your shelf? What do these incomplete planners represent to you?

3. How can you properly prepare for your roles without allowing your planner to become the source of your confidence?