Best Laid Plans

Us humans and our plans.

We like them, don’t we?

I do, anyway. I like to know a little what to expect. I mean, I’m all about spontaneity. I just usually like to plan for the time when I can do something spontaneous…. That makes a LOT of sense right there, huh!

God long ago taught me that my plans are all good and nice and all, but they are horribly flawed and filled with all sorts of inaccuracies that I will sooner or later find out.

Today we’re supposed to be at the hospital with Annabelle. Ear tubes, surgically closing her stomach/staying bye-bye to her gtube, and checking out her adenoids to see if they need to be said bye-bye too again.

Instead. we are, well, not. The princess, on Saturday evening, suddenly started running a temperature. I’m talking running around one minute, and an hour later, running 102 fever and talking out of her head and not breathing well.

On to the emergency room we went.

By the time we got there, her fever medication had kicked in and she was a happy little girl again.

They think it was just an upper respiratory infection. We came home about 5am Sunday morning, and she seems fine today, a few days later. But surgery now has to be postponed, just in case.

Lovely.

A few years ago (okay, fine probably even just last year…) this would have totally thrown my world upside down. Scott had a vacation day scheduled for today. I had planned my WHOLE week for this. Some ladies from the church had planned to bring meals for a few days while I devoted my time to taking care of the princess during recovery. Now it is ALL MESSED UP.

But I had this amazing peace about the whole thing.

First off, in the ER they put us in a room directly next from and across from 2 trauma rooms, reserved for the worst off patients. At two different times, without knowing details obviously, it was very evident that very touch-and-go patients were in those rooms, and I felt a huge urge to pray for them and their families. I’ve been there before. In one of those very same rooms Annabelle was taken too after she was life flighted to the hospital just after her first birthday, when she almost died on the way there. I remember the fear and the horrible feeling of watching them work feverishly to stabilize my baby. It was such an honor to be present and be able to pray for another parent who was going for the same thing, even if just from the little room next

Second, rushing God is never a wise idea. I have no idea if there was some grand reason He didn’t want her to have surgery tomorrow or if it was just odd timing. I don’t claim to have the ear of God and know all His ways. But I do know that nothing happens without his knowledge. And I trust that.

Third, silver linings ROCK. Scott had already taken the day off tomorrow, Annabelle is doing SO much better so should be able to go back to school tomorrow, so my honey and I will have a day to spend together! That is RARE for us so I’m excited!

And lastly… I could get upset about it. Frustrated. But really, what would it help? It’d just make ME more miserable and thus make those around me miserable and that wouldn’t be good for ANY of us.

So— my life lesson for this week is: CHOOSE JOY when life goes haywire and nothing happens like planned. Grab those silver nuggets and focus on those.

And as the Proverbs says (19:21 in the NLT to be exact), You can make many plans, but the LORD’s purpose will prevail.