My children requested to eat cake leftover from my now 3-year-old’s birthday party. I asked
them to wait until after lunch, and if they did, I would give them a slice to enjoy. Well, I caught my 7-year-old picking around the edges of the cake while I was making lunch. He looked at me with his mouth open, cradling the un-chewed morsel on his tongue.
“You can have that now, or you can obey and get a full slice after lunch,” I told him.
He immediately spit the small piece out and put it in the trash. As I watched him surrender his current desires for a better promise, I couldn’t help but think about all of the times God had given me the same choice: to take what I want now, or wait for what He had planned for me.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,”declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9 NIV)
I remember kneeling on the floor crying out to God, asking Him to grant me His favor and give me the dream job I interviewed for. I had spent the decade prior to that moment living my life according to my own plans. And, up until that point, everything had gone according to plan. I graduated my high-school studies a year early, attended a four year college, and married the love of my life right on schedule. The only thing that was missing was the career I so desperately desired.
The following day I received the disappointing phone call. The job was giving to the other candidate in consideration. I wanted that “cake” so badly. I was angry that God led me through a series of specific preparations for a job He would never give me. But, my childlike self couldn’t see the bigger picture. I couldn’t see that God was taking away a morsel to give me something better.
It wasn’t until years down the road that I realized the “dream job” would have never been conducive to the life God had designed for me. Instead, God used all of the training and schooling I went through to enhance my life in other, more surprising ways.
“A man’s mind plans his way [as he journeys through life], But the LORD directs his steps and establishes them.” (Proverbs 16:9 AMP)
God’s plans don’t always look the way I envisioned them to look. But, when I take the time to realize His ways are always higher than mine then I can find peace and purpose in whatever the outcome may be. I can recognize that when things don’t go according my plans it’s part of His immaculate design. Goodness will always follow when I willingly give up my desires to live in His perfect design.
“O LORD my God, you have performed many wonders for us. Your plans for us are too numerous to list. You have no equal. If I tried to recite all your wonderful deeds, I would never come to the end of them.” (Psalm 40:5 NLT)
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