Welcome to today’s issue of Fullness of Joy. Most Saturdays, I send out a newsletter you can read in just a few minutes. Would you be willing to click the ❤️ like button? It helps others find my work. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
I rarely write with a pen and never with blue ink.
In the days before l Google Calendar existed, I kept a paper planner on the kitchen counter and used it to keep track of the details of our family life. I wrote everything in black ink, but the more children I had, the more frequently I had to make adjustments—rearrange, reschedule, and sometimes scratch things right off my calendar and to-do list.
When I couldn’t stand the constant mess of changes, I started writing in pencil. At least with a pencil, I could erase and write in the new plan.
One day, as I was erasing something off my schedule for the hundredth time, a thought crossed my mind in frustration: Well, at least I only wrote it in pencil.
It hit me then—my entire life is written in pencil, not just my weekly schedule. I’m guessing it’s true for you as well.
We plan something fun, and a child gets sick. We carefully craft a menu, and a hungry teen eats the key ingredient.
On a weightier scale, we earn a college degree but never land the job we hoped for. We dream of having a family, only to learn we can’t have children. We fall in love with a child we hope to adopt, and it doesn’t happen—or we do adopt that child, and our lives change in ways we never imagined.
But making plans is still a good thing. Schedules calm my anxiety, to-do lists help me organize my time, and menus make it possible for us to have a reasonable meal most evenings.
In fact, I still use a paper planner every single day to organize my life.
Sometimes our plans align beautifully with God’s plans for us. Other times, we make plans with prayer and wise counsel, only to discover that God has something else in mind.
Many of us have heard, “If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans.”
I have to disagree. God wants us to hope, dream, and plan. He wants us to seek His will, choose the wisest path we can, and move forward—holding it loosely as the future unfolds.
We write our lives in pencil, willing to make the changes He asks of us.
We may find ourselves on a winding trail instead of the straight path we anticipated, yet we still arrive at our expected destination. But often, I’ve found that the trail leads to an entirely different place—a place I never would have discovered if I hadn’t first set out toward my original goal.
Some day I’ll share the story of how we said yes to taking a teen girl for a weekend and became her foster parents for 2 1/2 years. God’s plans are always better than mine. [The photo above is part of our story.]
I write my life in pencil, knowing that God has already written it in the most sure ink possible.
He writes, I follow as best I can, and I trust that wherever I end up is exactly where He wants me to be.
Is there something you planned, hoped for, believed would happen, but it didn’t?
Have you ever set out on a journey and ended up in a different place entirely, but you can see it’s where you were meant to be all along?
Do you cling to your pen when you probably need to relax your grip and let it go?
Just like in the old blogging days, we can share right here in the comments. This space can be a slice of beauty in the world.
I’d love to hear from you. Please leave a comment or just say hello.
Thank you for reading and being one of my people. Please share this with a friend.
With love and hope,
Lisa
P.S. If you’re weary or need some support, join the Hope Circle, my private community for adoptive, foster, and kinship moms. We have an active Facebook group and multiple options for Zoom gatherings each week. This life-giving group of women is filled with wisdom and kindness. We would love to support you. I also have a corresponding group for dads.
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