That’s a Great Plan!

I said this just last month—I’m a planner, that’s my happy place. I get a warm fuzzy feeling when I make a list and check it off. Not to beat a dead horse, but I’ve got the accounting degree, I stayed the course, and checked off all my boxes. And I found out I was wrong.

My friends with kids, they’re not always happy. “Oh, goodness! I’m not doing it right, am I? It’s me, I’m the problem. Dang it, how did that happen? “ The lips curve downward as these sweet women become anxious.

Yet I smile and I keep my mouth shut. What did I do wrong? No, stop! My kid’s not going down the right path…”

Oh, dear! Parents…we make our lists and plan our plans. But here’s the thing…our kids discover their own path. They make as many lists as they want and plan their own great plans. What? Our kids have their own plans? So does God.

My young men are twenty-seven and twenty-four. Married and going off into the world. They have their own plans, and they are running off and living them. They’ve even married two terribly incredibly terrific women—try saying that three times! You can’ t and you won’t,

because Gracie and Kat are so amazing you can’t begin to do that.

But what about me? I sit by myself sometimes and think, “Yes, my kids grew up. But so what? What’s their plan? Is it a good plan? It can’t be as good as mine?

I’ve explained my plan for each of their lives, which was met with scorn and laughter. But so what? Who cares what they think of my plan?

All this to say that, despite all my planning and preparing, God has His plan in place. As a planner, this has been really hard for me. But as a mom, it has brought me great joy watching my children thrive in the lives God has put in place for them.

Now I laugh when parents tell me all the plans they have for their children—they’ll be doctors or firefighters or professional football players. I don’t laugh out loud, mind you. I just smile and say, “That’s a great plan.” Because I know, from experience, that our plans aren’t the ones that really count.

Jann Goar Franklin graduated Russellville High School in 1985 and lives in Grand Cane, Louisiana. She also writes books, which are for sale at www.jannfranklin.com. You can reach her at jann@jannfranklin.com