The other day my son was looking for both a Sharpie & a pencil. Both can be found on my desk – the Sharpie in one of my drawers & pencils on top of my desk usually in a baggie.
Most of the pencils are small as I will keep using them until I can no longer hold them due to their smallness. And most no longer have erasers. Now mind you, it isn’t that I do not have a vast supply of pencils but I enjoy using pencils until they are used up. Looking at my baggie of pencils got me to thinking…..
I have tended to want to write my life with a Sharpie. I think there may be a name for it – “The Five Year Plan” or “Where I Want To Be In Ten Years” or “My Goals For Life”. And so I have planned:
- wanting to go to college
- land a good job
- get married
- buy a house
- have a baby
- maybe two babies
- buy a new car
- move to a bigger house
I won’t tell you how many I did or did not achieve & certainly not in the above listed order.
Life just does not cooperate with Sharpies.
Life tends to be written in pencil. And lately, I have concluded that I should be using pencils with huge erasers as life changes constantly. Perhaps that is why I have always preferred pencils to pens as my writing instrument of choice. Scripture puts it this way:
In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps. (Proverbs 16:9 NIV84)
I can make detailed plans, carefully weighing all the options or resort to a roll of the proverbial die but the reality is all the events of my life & circumstances are in God’s control. All. Of. It. Every day. I can plan but He directs. Even what seems to happen by chance, is not chance at all. It is all a part of His sovereign plan for my life.
I love the way Eugene Peterson words it:
We plan the way we want to live, but only God makes us able to live it.
(Proverbs 16:9, The Message)
This morning I realized why none of my pencils have erasers. And why one of the funniest birthday presents I received was a box of Vera Bradley pencils 🙂
Today I am linking with Soli Deo Gloria and Marriage Mondays and True Story Blog Party and Unite and Titus 2 Tuesdays and What I Learned This Week and Behind The Scenes and Titus 2sday .
I loved reading this post…simple but full of such wisdom. We would do well to keep the sharpies for things like the character of God and His promises for when the eraser is in use in our lives 🙂
Amen! Sharpies for God. Pencils WITH erasers for us 🙂 Love it!
God’s sovereignty gets me every time, and I’m left standing in awe at how His plans are always better than mine.
His plans are truly so much better. May I learn to cease struggling against them at times.
Stopping by from Crystal’s link up today 🙂 Isn’t it awesome how God speaks to us in the ordinary things in our life? Very cool. Your post had me imagining us sketching our lives out in pencil, frantically trying to fit in every detail we want, urgently erasing where things don’t go as planned… all the while, God is there with his Sharpie, patiently drawing over the top of our crazy sketch… 🙂
Love your image! So glad that you stopped & shared it with me. Thank you so much !
I love the Message translation of that verse…and how you applied it. It’s funny because I always seem to be looking for a pencil but can never find one…I can usually find a Sharpie, though! Love this, friend…definitely a good reminder for my heart. Have a wonderful day! 🙂
May we learn to leave the Sharpie in the hands of the Only One that should be using it 🙂 So glad you stopped by! Have a great day!
Dear Joanne
This is so true. I certainly didn’t have a chronic illness on my bucket list of life. Best to allow our Pappa to lead us the way He thinks best!
Much love XX
Mia
It is so true that we may make plans, but life seems to kind of take over sometimes doesn’t it? I look back on goals that I set and find that I meet the goal in some way shape or form, but a lot of times it isn’t how I planned to meet the goal.
Heidi’s Wanderings
Stopping by from Crystal’s link up today
I just love this post. I am a pencil girl myself but I think mine desire to us a pencil is because I want to appear to be as perfect as possible. I will write a note 100 times until I think my handwriting is good enough. Thanks so showing me a new way to see things
I am so glad that you shared this. It really is hard for us to let go of our desire to appear perfect. May we realize that He doesn’t expect perfection only obedience 🙂 Thanks for stopping by today!
So cute! And I love those Vera Bradley pencils. We always need to be alert for a course change, and I love that verse in Proverbs. I used to joke that when I would sit and tell someone my plans God was probably laughingly saying, “That’s what you think.” And His plans are so much better than mine. Great post!
I would agree that God must get a good chuckle out of us thinking we are ever in control. Thanks so much for stopping & sharing!
I did just about everything on your list, and not exactly in that order, and then our children grew up and hubby’s health would not allow him to work, so we sold everything in the big city and moved to the woods where our mobile home is. We are comfortable and we both blog and write. God used his pencil and eraser to place us here. Thanks so much for sharing at “Tell Me a Story.”
this is great! I’m a fan of both pencils AND sharpies. You have me thinking,though. Writing our lives in Sharpie also let’s us know where we’ve been, how God has changed our course, and how our dreams have changed.
I do, however, fill in my lesson plans and address book with pencil and keep an eraser nearby!
You can never find a pencil or a sharpie in my home. But I so enjoyed your post. Such wisdom. I look back and realize…wow, have my dreams changed from what they were many, many years ago. He truly changed our course (for my entire family) and I’m so grateful He did.
Blessings to you,
Beth
Beth –
It is amazing how he changes our course. And I agree with you – we end up so grateful that He did! Thank you for stopping by!
Have a wonderful day,
Joanne
Hi Joanne, I just read that verse today in my devotional time. It gave me great comfort to know tht God is in charge, especially when my hopes and plans are not turning out the way I wanted.
Blessings,
Janis
Janis –
I love when God brings the same verse across my path a few times. So glad that He brought you comfort in that.
Have a blessed day!
Joanne
It’s like that funny saying, “If you want to see God laugh, tell him about your plans.” Yes, we can work as hard as we want toward achieving something but if it’s not in His will, it is ultimately a big ole’ waste of time.
So very true! Glad you stopped by!!