Making Plans

I love plans. I need plans. They help me stay structured and organized. Plans help me to stay on task and on point. They keep me going in the right direction. 2020 was a year where making plans just never ended well. It was certainly a year of changes, adjustment, and re-adjustments. It was a year when plans ‘B’ and ‘C’ seemed like really good ideas, but never worked out. 2020 is a year that made us have to go with the flow and trust in God’s plans rather than our own. That being said, as we look to 2021, we should continue to make plans.
Look at what Proverbs 16:9 says, “We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps.” Many people look at this verse and determine that we should never plan because there’s no point. Our planning is only in vain. However, that’s not what the verse describes. The verse describes man making plans. That fact is presented in neither a positive or negative light. It simply is a fact. As human beings, we must make plans. We must make sure we have a plan on how we spend our income. We need to have direction for our family as we move forward. However, what the writer in Proverbs is saying is that yes, while we must make plans, we cannot hold ultimate hope and happiness in those plans because ultimately God is the one who is going to guide how those plans do or don’t play out.
So what does that mean for us going into 2021 with most of our uncertainty and questions still very much alive? How can you and your family make plans for 2021. Here are two simple and effective ways to make plans going into 2021:

• Set goals, not dates. As we have seen, plans are often difficult to change or cancel because there’s great disappointment when that vacation gets moved or that event is canceled. So instead of setting dates, set goals. These goals could be anything. You could have a goal to have a family game night once a week. You could have a goal to have one family activity a month. You could have a goal to “go away” three times this year as a family. You could have a devotional plan that the entire family reads together over a particular period of time. Notice that each of those are flexible. They don’t need a specific night or time, but rather during a particular period of time. As a family, sit down together and make goals you want to accomplish together this year.
• Remember why you are here. Purpose drives action. Many times, when we make plans, we don’t consider the purpose God has for our lives. For some of us, vacation might not only be vacation from work, but vacation from our spiritual lives as well. As followers of Jesus, our purpose, our mission, should never take a vacation or be affected by the world around us, but it so easily is. We get distracted by the noise and chaos of our world running as far away from God as is possibly can. We worry about our government and the decisions made there. If our actions in 2021 are based on those issues, then we are missing out on the purpose God has us here on this earth. We are to be salt and light in a dark world (Matthew 5), examples of what hope looks like (1 Peter 1), and characterized by love (John 13). All of those actions point people to Christ, the eternal hope for everyone.

 As you make plans for 2021, set goals for you and your family and remember why you are here. I believe God is going to do amazing things in 2021. They might not be what we planned for, expected, or even wanted, but they are God’s plans and He will lead us to accomplish His purpose for His glory. I pray that will be our focus this year.