February 14, 2011
I always dreamed of being married and having a little girl to share all the "girlie" stuff with. I did get married, I did have a sweet precious little girl but.....I didn't get the sharing the "girlie" stuff part.
My daughter is now twelve years old and I am so proud of the young lady God is molding her to be. Being able to be apart of that has truly been an incredible blessing. We recently had a mother/daughter tea at our church with the GA program. It was a very sweet time of honoring our daughters and our lady missionaries in the church. We wrote letters to our daughters and they were read aloud for the entire audience. I was like a baby; it doesn't take much for me to cry so I did just that...cried like a baby. Each letter admired the character traits and good qualities of their daughters and encouraged them on to live a life for the Lord. When it came time for Madison's letter to be read I couldn't even look her in the eye without tears falling. Oh, how thankful I am for that precious girl!!
You see, my plans were very different from God's. I wanted a baby girl but not at the time we found out we were pregnant. My husband and I had been married for a couple years and both of us were full time college students and working part time jobs. Having a child at that moment was not part of our plans. We had goals and a time frame to meet them and a child was not something that really fit into our agenda. Please don't misunderstand me, we were grateful to be having a child and very quickly got excited but also were frustrated that OUR plans were not going according to our schedule. You with me??
And then there was the next thing....my daughter has never been a girlie girl!! What?? If you know me then you completely understand what I am talking about! How can this be??? Lord this was not what I asked for!! How come you keep interrupting my plans??? Madison has NEVER played with baby dolls or Barbies! She NEVER liked to dress up and still doesn't like to shop!! How could this be I have one girl and she is NOT a girl!! Something must be wrong Lord!! Playing with stuffed animals was her love and quickly she found out what a horse was and has had a passion for them since she was two!! How did that happen, neither my husband nor I have ever dealt with horses...we are NOT farm people!!! Did you hear me???? I don't like to be dirty and my daughter would live in the barn if I would let her; she would sleep with the horses on hay if I would allow it!
God has countless times told me that His ways are not my ways and I have tried to argue with Him several times over it! These lessons have been life altering! When you finally realize that what you want may not line up with what He wants, it is very freeing.
I am doing a study over Jonah right now and basically it is about his interrupted life. He didn't want to go to Ninevah, it wasn't a part of his plan, he didn't like the people there, and he high-tailed it the opposite direction when he heard God calling him there.
Numerous times I have done the same thing. God has interrupted my life and my plans and I had a choice to whine and fight for what I wanted or submit to His authority! I can't say that I always have chosen His path! I have been a whinner, I have thrown fits, I have tried to conform my circumstances to what I wanted, and I have gone the opposite direction despite what God has laid before me and let me say there has been consequences for my actions.
I love the story of Jonah, maybe because I can relate to him so well. He loved the Lord and knew Him well, but when asked to step out and go against the current he resisted! That wasn't what Jonah had in mind. He didn't want to go to Ninevah to share the gospel with people that have hated his kind for generations. Being with enemies and evil was NOT on his to do list! His plans were interrupted. Priscilla Shirer the author of the study I am doing put it very well....a life interrupted should be considered God's divine intervention!! WOW!!
How many times have you had a plan and things didn't go as planned? How many times has God called you elsewhere when according to your map you were on the right route? What about now as God is calling you into a deeper walk with Him but it is requiring you to spend more time in His Word and time with Him in prayer? Interruption or intervention? What about last night when you had this perfect night with your husband planned in your mind and it didn't go that way at all? Or maybe you thought you would have a child by now and it hasn't happened? How about when you have spent all day cleaning the house from top to bottom and the family comes and messes it up in two minutes? Or maybe you have lost someone in your life very dear to you? These were not your plans, they were not according to the map you had set before you. You were content with your plan. There are a thousands of options to explore on this subject but the fact of the matter is....is it our plans or God's plans? And when our plans don't pan out, how do we respond? Do we look at our interruptions as His divine interventions?
I am sure I sound selfish when I have whined about having an unplanned child and that child not being a girlie girl. And yes that is exactly what I have learned. Realizing my ways are not His can be heart breaking for dreams. But on the other hand, submitting to His authority and realizing his divine interventions are much better than my dreams could ever be are what makes my relationship with my Father that much sweeter! Try God out on that...you will NOT be disappointed!!!
Isaiah 55:8-9 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."
Be encouraged that even when your life seems to be interrupted, it may just be God's divine intervention. We may not see it at first but when we saddle up His horse we will be in for a ride much more adventurous and grand than we ever dreamed of! Yee-haw!! Let's find some dirt!!
Encouraging you,
Kim Bobo
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