Have you every had an idea or plan go awry? What if it happened in front of others?
Back when I was in my early teens, I spent a Friday night with my cousin and friend Lynda. That evening we received a few inches of snow. We got up early that Saturday morning, put on our coats and gloves, and ran outside with Lynda’s sled. There were already younger kids sledding down the hill in front of her house. We climbed up the hill and sat her sled at the top. She sat down first and I got on behind her.
“Here we go!” we yelled as we scooted forward. Nothing. We didn’t even budge.
“Let’s try again,” Lynda suggested. We scooted forward and yelled, “Here we go!” Again, nothing. As we sat there on her sled, the other kids were sledding all around us.
“Maybe we’re too high on the hill,” she suggested. “We should move the sled down a little.” I looked around and saw kids sliding from higher up than we were. We moved our sled a few inches down the hill. We sat back down on the sled.
“Here we go!” we yelled again as we scooted forward. Nothing. At that point, I was glad those kids didn’t know me. Here Lynda and I were older than them, but yet we couldn’t get Lynda’s sled to budge while they were laughing and having so much fun. To be honest, it was probably the fact that her sled was the old fashioned type with runners while the others had light-weight plastic ones.
‘“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 (KJV)
While Lynda and I laughed off our failure to go sledding, not all failures of plans are so easily dealt with. In fact, that can be a rather painful and/or costly experience in many ways. So why does this happen to us? I think it is because we don’t ask the Lord about our plans before we act on them. And that often interferes with His plan for us.
In the movie “Christmas Vacation,” the character Clark Griswold used a cooking oil that was extremely slick. He rubbed the bottom of his metal sled with it. When he pushed his sled forward, he shot out like a rocket. Needless to say, he couldn’t stop. At one point, he sleds onto a road way with sparks flying up behind him. I laughed so hard that I almost lost my breath. Too bad Lynda and I didn’t have his cooking oil that snowy day. We would’ve shot across McCloud Road, Hill Road, Andersonville Pike, and then onto Norris Freeway. Now that would’ve been an adventure.
Brooke Cox is an author, speaker, and storyteller. She was a 2016 Selah Awards Finalist for Debut Novel. Her children’s book: “Dinosaur Eggs,” is now available. It is based on Ephesians 6: The Armor of God. Her novel “Until the Moon Rises: A Conniving Cousin Mystery” is also available. Also, she has two books out in her storytelling series: “Saucy Southern Stories.” The Amazon links for her books may be found on her website: brookecoxstories.com. Please feel free to contact her. She would love to hear from you.