God's Plan Is the Best Plan

By Colin Campbell
By Barb Harris
By Mark Mercer
By Sereena Bexley
By Vennecia Jackson
By Mary Lata Thottukadavil
By Michael Agnew
By Zabdi Piña
By Kristie Davis
By AJ Jerkins
By John Hames
By Makenzie Romero
By Caroline Khameneh
By Victoria Renken
By Kathy Whitthorne
By Dawn Johnson
By DJ Newman
By Mary Weyand
By Rob Nickell
By Kathy Whitthorne
By Nila Odom
By Sherene Joseph Rajadurai
By Kristi Sheffy
By Sharon Arrington
By Sarah Crawford
By Betsy Paul
By Angel Piña
By Elizabeth Piña
By Lori Kuykendall
By Chris Kuykendall
By Matt Holland
By Jessie Yearwood
By Brian Severski
By Brian Arrington
By Sandhya Curran
By Will Meier
By Clint Calhoun
By Jen Mayes
By Alf Laukoter
By Neil Wiersum
By Jim Henry
By Jenn Wright
By Kevin Harwood
By Nandi Roszhart
By Leah Vanhorn
By Janett Miller
By Isaac Harris
By Chad Golden
By Jonathan Cortina
By Kuruvilla (K.O.) Oommen
By John Dyer
By Abe Paul
By Lauren Geppert
By Jennifer Durrett
By Penny Jones
By Jill Asibelua
By Jared Barnett
By Paul Martin
By Kristi Herring
By Sissy Mathew
By Shannon Pugh
By Al Palamara
By Melanie Mechsner
By Michelle Garza
By Armando Galvan
By Jeremiah Betron
By Camille Holland
By Rod Myers
By Crystal Elwell
By Darcy Peterson
By Jason Elwell
By Amy Aupperlee
By Barry Jones
By Bryan Eck
By Tricia Kinsman
By Nat Pugh
By Dana Myers
By Craig Pierce
By Jim Woodward
By Andy McQuitty
By Pete Hyndman
By Kevin Dial
By Catherine Boyle
By Catherine & Elizabeth Downing
By Gerald Ridgway
By Jill Hoenig
By Sunitha John
By Tarrin Henry
By RozeLee Rugh
By Beverly Hogan
By Kendra Cordero
By Lisa Gajewski
By Bonnie Goree
By Young-Sam Won
By Chris Beach
By Tom Rugh
By Nick Vuicich
By Andy Franks
By Lead Team
By Jason Roszhart
By Harvard Medical School
By Justin K. Hughes, MA, LPC
By Sherene Joseph
By Earl Davidson
By Rebecca Perry
By Joe Padilla
By Christian Melendez
By Bruce Riley
By Isaac Harris
By Amy Leadabrand
By Ben Haile
By Shaun Robinson
By Natalie Franks
By Cathy Barnett
By Ryan Sanders
By Casey Pruet, The Grace Alliance
By Sharon Arrington
By Lauren Chapin
By Betsy Paul
By Alberto Negron
By Kelly Jarrell
By Michelle Mayes
By Jenn Wright
By Jill Jackson
By Terri Moore
By Robyn Wise
By Katherine Holloway
By Richard Ray
By Kurtlery Knight
By Bruce Hebel
By Neil Tomba
By Tony Bridwell
By Grayson McGovern
By Luke Donohoo
By Kathy Whitthorne
By Mike Moore
By Wade Raper
By Mike Gwartney
By Jo Saxton
By Dieula Previlon
By Jonathan Cude
By Ken Lawrence
By Jay Hohfeler
By Barb Haesecke
By Lindsay Casillas
By JoAnn Hummel
By Shawn Small
By Alice McQuitty
By Jonathan Murphy
By Peggy Norton
By Brent McKinney
By Irving Bible Church
By Irving Bible Church
By Ashley Tieperman
By Betsy Nichols
By Trey Grant
By Debbie Lucien
By Sue Edwards
By Suzie Robinson
By Paul Smith
In Formed
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I’m a planner. I have always been a planner. I love to put pen to paper and create my life over the next few months. I love big events and small events, and I love the anticipation of all the pieces coming together. As an enneagram 7, having things to look forward to in my life is one of my greatest joys. So, like so many of us, I have just assumed that I would achieve and receive all the things I had planned for in my life. And we all know what comes next, right? “Man can make plans in his heart, but God determines his steps...” (Prov 16:9)

I always wanted to be a mom, and I planned to be a mom, but when Brian and I got married pretty young, we decided to wait a few years to start our family. We traveled, got two dogs, established our careers, and then decided that kids were what we wanted.

Then we waited. And waited. We saw doctors, I quit eating sugar, dairy, and gluten, I lost weight, I gained weight, I quit a stressful job, I did yoga, I got acupuncture, and then we saw more doctors for five more years.

At some point during this season, I was attending Women’s Bible Study at IBC when the teacher that evening, Sara Taylor, taught us about breath prayers. She explained that it was like taking a verse and making it the song for a moment in your life. The leaders then handed out blank CDs and asked us to write our verses in our own words on that cd. Well, since I wasn’t feeling really great about God those days, I just chose the first verse I could think of, Jeremiah 29:11. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

That was the verse that my Dad challenged me with when I graduated high school. Funny thing — I always thought it was so convenient that the verse he gave me was so readily available on t shirts and mugs, but I also had enough Bible knowledge to know this verse was not the promise of an easy life or of the life that you planned for yourself. It was God’s promise of HIS plans and HIS hope — both of which were for my good.

And y’all. I needed some hope in my life. I was watching all my dreams and plans for my future disappear with every single negative pregnancy test. So, I took my CD and wrote “God has a plan for me, and it is BEST for me” on my CD. I was armed with the head knowledge of this verse and now it was time to learn it in my heart. But as we so often do, I got in my car that night and put the CD in my visor and I forgot about it, continuing in my self-pity and hopelessness.

One day when I was running late to a meeting, I pulled down the visor to put on my makeup and the CD fell out and into my lap. I stopped and read the promise from God that I had written. Please note, I didn’t pray it, I just read it. I stuck it back up there, but on the outside of the visor this time. I began to read that verse every morning and something so strange started happening. I started actually believing the words!

I posted them next to my sink and on my computer. I started whispering them to myself. It wasn’t long before that truth became real to me and I started living those words. I began to live my life knowing that I had hope and God had plan for me even though it didn’t automatically give me the things I wanted (emphasis on I). What it did give me was the freedom to live open-handedly and the ability to breathe and trust God through a painful, scary or disappointing situation. I still spent significant time under the blankets crying after hearing of another friend’s pregnancy, but instead of staying in that pain and taking up residence there, I whispered my prayer and l would go and live my life, knowing that my plans weren’t the best plans for me, and I could trust God who did have the best plans for me.

Here’s the thing — I am still a planner. I still have a lot that I want to do in my life, but I make those plans knowing that I might not actually know what I need in my life or what is best for my life. I have given up the control and the need to know, and I have traded it for trusting in a good God who loves me.

I still practice breath prayers. When my husband was very sick, I clung to Psalm 91:4 “He will cover me”. When quarantine started and I saw some the things I had planned for over a year being cancelled, a sweet friend reminded me of the verse “Let us not grow weary of doing good...” So, in some of the harder moments of pandemic parenting and living, I have found myself whispering, “do not grow weary”.

The rest of the story is that ironically enough, we did get pregnant the same month we planned a backpacking trip across Europe for our tenth wedding anniversary. Our daughter was born just three weeks after our anniversary, and now that I have met her and see how she fits with Brian and me, I see exactly why God had us wait so long for her; she completes our little family. And as she grows, I pray that she can rest in the same truth God had for me — that he has a plan for me, and his plan is best.

FORMED

God is calling us, the people of Irving Bible Church, to become a multi-ethnic movement of missionary disciples, formed in the way of Jesus for the sake of the world.

We want to be a transformed people who experience vibrant spiritual growth together. We want the Spirit of God to shape us more and more into the likeness of Jesus as we follow him.

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