Option E - Not Enough Information

 This title was inspired by multiple-choice tests.
 It is the end of the school year, after all. J

Have you ever been in this situation: You think everything is going fine, and you are getting stuff done, answering questions, etc. Suddenly, someone tells you you’re doing it all wrong. Come to find out, you didn’t have all the information. They didn’t share that one pertinent piece of data that changes everything. And then they get upset at you for not doing it right. Has that ever happened? I hope it hasn’t, but chances are, it has. It happens to me on a regular basis. It is so frustrating. You do your very best, but when you are missing pieces, it is possible to get it all wrong, at no real fault of yours. It happens all the time, and never gets easier to deal with.

In life, we have to accept that we are never going to know it all. There will always be things that are mysteries. I don’t know what my life is going to look like in 10 years. I have to accept that. But I can make the best decisions possible now with what I do know.

What I find comforting about God is that even though He may not give me all the information right now, He will give me the information I need when I need it. (Isaiah 49:8, Ephesians 2:10, Hebrews 4:16) And, if I obediently follow Him, He will show me where to put my feet while I wait for the rest of the pieces. (Psalm 119:105) He has a plan, a good one, and He is determined for things to work out the right way. (Jeremiah 29:11, Romans 8:28) And He won’t be angry at me for making the best choices possible with my limited information. I will upset Him only by not obeying Him and deliberately taking a path other than the one He has told me to take.

So when people let you down, and get mad at you when you’ve done your best, just remember: You’re living for the One with a Perfect plan, a Perfect method, and Perfect timing, who is Love defined. Just listen to Him, make the best choice, love Him, and follow His directions. You’ll be ok. Actually, you’ll be better than ok. You’ll be His. J

"Mind" your own business

  This weekend I had the privilege of chaperoning a girls retreat for the 7th-12th grade girls at our church. It was a wonderful 2 days of hanging out, playing games, talking, bonding, and learning God's Word with and from them. Honestly, I took so much away from the conversations and lessons! I hope they did, too, since they were the target audience. I love how God teaches us things when we think we are teaching others. :)

The theme was God Girls - belonging to Him, heart, soul, body and mind. I got to speak, along with a dear friend, about the mind. We focused on how Satan tries to get into our minds and keep us from seeing things God's way, causing us to make decisions that do not honor God, and pull us farther from Him. One of the things we talked about were the lies he feeds us - we're not good enough, we're not smart enough, we're not pretty enough, etc, and how as girls/women we are really good at criticizing ourselves. We encouraged the girls to ignore those lies, push away negative thoughts, and focus on positives instead. But right after the talk, what did I do? Immediately began a play-by-play of the talk in my head, deciding what went wrong or didn't come out the way I wanted it to, and how it was so awful. I gave right into Satan and did what I just told the girls not to do! 

While I always want to do a good job, and do my best, I will never be able to be perfect. So why do I get upset at myself when I'm fall short of perfection? So what if the talk felt disjointed? So what if the words didn't come out perfectly. God is in control, and He can handle it. It's not about me. It's His message. And I know He was guiding at least some of my words, because I said some things I had planned not to say. (But that I realize now were important to say, because I needed to hear them as much as, if not more than the girls!) And as for the other stuff, oh well! As long as I do my best, He'll handle the rest. My goal is to just try not to get in His way. :)