Over Planning

But when they bring you before the synagogues, the rulers, and the authorities, do not worry about how you should make your defense or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that moment what you must say.” (Luke 12:11-12 NET)

My wife, Tammy, and I are planners. Everything that we are to do must have a plan, and not only that, it must be planned out days, weeks, and sometimes even months ahead of time. While this can be good in some cases, it is not good in all cases. What I mean by that is say we have an event coming up and decisions have to be made and  details have to be worked out which rely on other people to also have to make decisions. Tammy and I would not only try to plan every detail, but we would also be constantly contacting the other people if they decided anything...and we would do this months ahead of time when there was plenty of time to get it done! For us, however, it had to be done NOW! Well God finally got a hold of Tammy and I and told us that we need to have balance, and while planning is good to a certain extent, if we over plan, it leaves no room for Him to do what He wants to do. God even went as far as telling us not to plan anything for a season, and trust Him and let Him do what He needs to do and He would tell us what we need to do when we need to do it. When we listened to Him it was amazing how much stress and frustrations no longer existed. Since then we have kept to what He has told us and while we plan where we need to plan, we are trusting Him with a lot of the details and allowing God to be God!

Take Away: if you are an over planner or a details person and you find yourself getting frustrated at not only yourself, but at others because they are not doing things when you think they should be doing them, hand it over to God, let God be your planner, and then do what He tells you when He tells you.