The Timeline of Life

I've always been a planner. I remember lots of nights in high school where I would stay up late with my college catalogs spread all over my bed, trying to figure out which one I should go to. I would make lists of qualities of guys I knew and try to figure out which one I should marry.

And God would sit in heaven and smile because He knew the plan He had for my life.

When Hubby and I got married, we would get out our calendars and try to plan when we would have kids and when we would graduate. Our conversations would go something like this:

Me (pointing to the calendar): Let's get pregnant this week so we can have a baby over spring break.
Hubby: We might not want a 2-month old when we move to wherever our first ministry position is.
Me: That's true. Maybe we should have a baby over Christmas break instead.
Hubby: OK. That would give us just one semester with a baby. We could probably manage that.

And God would sit in heaven and smile because He knew that His plans were better than our plans.

And here we are. I'm turning a nice round number of a birthday tomorrow AND graduating, and we have 3 beautiful children, and we are not in full-time ministry. This was not at all the timeline we planned during those many conversations. And God is smiling because His plans are perfect and beautiful, and He is teaching us to trust Him more with the details of our lives. He does such a better job at it than I do!