God's Plans vs. My Plans

"In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps."-Proverbs 16:9


I've learned to be pretty flexible. I'm not a very rigid or structured person, I'd like to say I'm more of a go with the flow kind of girl. God has constantly shown me that giving up control and trusting Him to work everything out is definitely the way to go and I've tried to do that. Sometimes though, I get frustrated.

This summer, my plan was to go on a summer project with a ministry called Cru. I was going to work with homeless people, children and victims of sex trafficking. I was pretty excited. If you know me, you'll know that those are some things I'm pretty passionate about. I had given up my desires to go to Africa again and had gotten pretty excited to show God's love in the inner city. I got to go to Chicago this spring break and I absolutely loved it! I love kids and people in the city and I was so pumped to spend my summer getting out of my comfort zone and doing new things.
Then, a few weeks ago, I got the news that my project had been cancelled. There weren't enough participants apparently. I was pretty upset. I had really been looking forward to this and I didn't understand why God would take it away from me. Now I had absolutely no plans and no idea what to do for the summer.

Over the past year I've been helping out with a Sunday night children's ministry at my church in Clemson. I absolutely love it! The kids are so awesome and I've been learning right along with them. I decided to mention my now lack of plans to the lady who helps run things and wouldn't you know it she had tons of ideas for things I could do in the summer right here in Clemson! I got pretty excited but I wasn't sure if I'd actually be able to stay here and figure out housing and all that.
Later that day I was talking with my best friend who's currently in Singapore studying abroad. Some of her plans had fallen through as well and it turns out she was planning on staying in Clemson as well and had a place where we could live! God was just dropping things into place!

I still needed to figure out a job though. I interviewed to be a co-leader of the summer kid's ministry program at my church in Clemson. After a few more weeks I found out that I got the job! I am so excited to work with these kids I have gotten to know over the past year and I am going to be able to see how kid's ministry is run at a church. The lady in charge wants me to get a chance to learn a lot of different aspects of ministry and help me get plugged in with the community and local non-profit ministries.

Now I am going to be able to stay in Clemson for the summer with my best friend, work at a job I'm really excited about, make some money, go on the family vacations I would have missed out on if I had gone on my project and grow in my relationship with God through it all!
This was not how I had planned to spend my summer but it just shows that God has His own plans and they are amazing! I cannot wait to see what He's going to show me over the summer! :)