I'm sure some of you are wondering why I skipped posting on Saturday. Well, the main reasons are that I've been sick with a bad cold and that we've been rather busy this weekend.
Life has been really full lately. We have a girl from our home church in NC staying with us right now, so we're trying to do some stuff with her. We've also been going through a bad cold, one person at a time. I'm currently on getting better from it, but one of my brothers is at the worst day.
We've also had more water troubles, though the rain has stopped. It hasn't rained at night in several days and we're all praising the Lord for that blessing! Some of you might have heard that Kenya has had a lot of rain over the past month, and that's definitely true. It's caused a lot of flooding and deaths. But we're all so thankful that the rain has finally stopped!
We had two really sweet ladies over for supper tonight and they were telling us of the things they've been doing on their trip here. They told us that they weren't able to do many of the things they planned to do, but the things they were able to do were even better than what they didn't get to do.
My point here is that sometimes the things we have planned that we believe are the best things that we can do are not the best things God has planned for us. God's plans are always bigger, better, and greater than anything we could think up.
That's why, when life doesn't happen the way you thought it would, look to God. His plans for you are better than the ones you made.
I've really wrestled with this a lot over the past couple months. When I got that email telling me that the midwifery school I was planning to go to suspended their program, at first I was devastated. I couldn't imagine anything better for myself.
I mean, this school was specifically for training missionaries. All of their programs were double majors with Bible and Theology. They sent you on a missionary internship overseas to learn missions in a missions context. The midwifery professor was fresh from the mission field were she had taught midwifery to hundreds of people and delivered thousands of babies. Her courses were specifically designed for training missionary midwives.
And this is really what bothered me. If this school was really as great as it seemed, what could be better for me? How in the world could God have something better? All the other midwifery schools I could find were secular and many of them were online. How could doing one of these courses be better than my original plans?
But I know that God is sovreign and His plans are always better than ours. The Lord speaks through Jeremiah in Jeremiah 29:11 showing that He has plans for us.
"'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.'"
Even though I still struggle with not knowing, not understanding, I know that even though this seems harmful to me right now, I will understand later. Even though I don't know how life will play out, I can rest in the assurance that He is guiding my life, He is directing my steps, and He will never fail me.
"A man's heart plans his course, but the Lord directs his steps." -Proverbs 16:9
How true these words are. We get so focused on our lives that we forget that we are not the ones that direct our lives. It is our Lord that guides us. I can rest in this promise that He is guiding our steps and so can you.
So when life doesn't go the way we think it should or we expect it to, look to Him. He will guide your steps. He has plans for you and for your future.
