The Best Laid Plans

May the Lord give you the desire of your heart, and make all your plans succeed— Psalm 20:4

Yes, in this demanding season of raising little ones, when a sick child or a broken appliance can torpedo a whole day’s to-do list (fortunately we haven’t had either problem recently), we mamas still attempt to make plans.

If I get too ambitious with my planning, I set myself up for failure. Not making plans at all is defeating, too. A middle ground of several attainable goals helps me stay focused and feeling productive while preserving my sanity.

I also like to make goals for the current month or quarter, not for the entire year. Life just changes too quickly.

So here are my goals for January and February, the first two months of 2020, and the first two months of a new decade!

First, I have plans to get the living room in order, which will include cleaning the carpet! It’s bad. Really bad. People with pets keep telling me it can be worse, but I don’t know that I believe them.

Of course, before any carpet cleaning can be done, we’ve got to get the eight foot blue spruce out of the house. Typically, we put off taking down the tree until navigating around it has become so automatic that we forget we are able to do something about the needle-dropping behemoth taking up two thirds of the living room.

This year we’ve got a good start! The ornaments are down already, thanks to my helpers.

Next, I plan to get back on the wagon with potty training my two year old. She’s very motivated, and if I can be consistent, I’m hopeful she will be trained in the next few weeks.

Yes, I realize I don’t have total control over this process. Despite her advanced verbal skills, she’s still a two year old. She still gets scared when I vaccuum. She still has sudden meltdowns for no discernible reason.

It is helpful, though, that she is so good at expressing her thoughts at her tender age. Yesterday, she was munching her macaroni and cheese,

when she spied the vaccuum cleaner in the other room and got a concerned look on her face. “Mom, did you vaccuum the living room?”

“No, I haven’t vaccuumed yet, actually.”

She pondered this info. “Well, can you vaccuum during my nap in my crib?”

“Don’t worry, sweetheart. I know you don’t like the vaccuum and I’ll make sure to do it sometime when you’re not in the vicinity.”

Relieved, she resumed her lunch with a swig of milk from her sippy cup. “Okay, mom.”

You would think finishing up the potty training process with this curly-haired little sweetie would be a cinch. I’ll keep you posted!

Meeting my next goal will depend more on mommy time management and less on two year old caprice. I am reading through the book of Psalms in a new Bible translation, the Evangelical Heritage Version. I don’t have any set timeframe for finishing, I’m just trying to read a little each day. If it turns out to be very little, like one page, that’s okay. I’m happy to report that I am up to Psalm 9: I will thank you, Lord, with all my heart. I will tell about all your wonderful deeds.

I thank God that He gives me the ability and freedom to set goals. He even encourages me to make plans, particularly planning that asks Him for guidance and trusts Him with the outcome. He knows that setting goals is good for my family, and good for my own mental health!

My Creator gives me the dignity of making plans, big or small, short-term or long. While I set my goals, I have the comfort of knowing that He has made plans for me.

“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” (Jeremiah 29:11).

God has exactly what He wants for me all planned out already, both in the short term (during my life here on earth) and the long term (my life in Heaven). His plans never get delayed or derailed, just as His plan of sending Jesus to earth to live and die for me was accomplished perfectly at just the right time.

For the plans you have for me, Lord, those already carried out and those yet to come, I thank you with all my heart.