Lord willing

I love calendars and lists and really enjoy things like planning our family vacations. There's certainly nothing wrong with being organized and making plans, but it's important to be flexible when life doesn't go as planned. Some people acknowledge this by saying the words "Lord willing" when talking about upcoming events. On May 29, 2012 someone from our dentist's office called to confirm my appointment for the next morning. I remember saying, "I'll see you then" and thinking nothing of making that promise. In the middle of the night I woke up in a pool of blood and was admitted to the hospital with life threatening pregnancy complications. Early that morning I asked my husband to call the dentist's office to let them know that I wouldn't be coming, and due to bed rest and such, several months passed before I actually made it to the dentist. Ever since that day, I have found myself being more careful in how I word things. When asked to confirm my next appointment, I said "I'm planning to be there." As it says in Proverbs 27:1, "Don’t brashly announce what you’re going to do tomorrow; you don’t know the first thing about tomorrow

On Thursday I was expecting to host a Thanksgiving dinner for fourteen people, but the turkey has yet to be cooked because my mother-in-law was admitted to the hospital on Monday morning and my father ended up at the hospital with a blood pressure of 236/103 on Tuesday night. If I stuck with the plan of having our dinner on Thursday, most of our guests wouldn't have been able to make it. We're hoping to have our meal tomorrow with eleven of us gathered around the table. This situation reminded me of James 4:13-15, "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go into this or that town and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.'  You do not know about tomorrow. What is your life like? For you are a puff of smoke that appears for a short time and then vanishes.   You ought to say instead, “If the Lord is willing, then we will live and do this or that." Although I don't plan to actually start using the words "Lord willing" all the time, I want to make plans with the attitude that the Lord is truly in charge of my life and to graciously accept any changes to those plans.