Plans of the Heart

Health Certificate ✔️ Certified Hay ✔️ Hat ✔️ Boots ✔️ Chaps ✔️ Horses ✔️

My husband and I love to travel. One of our annual trips includes loading the horses into our living quarters horse trailer and going west for the summer months. If you live in a state where the humidity hits 100 then you will understand why.

Planning a trip with horses requires as much or more preparation than traveling with small children. It takes us days, (actually sometimes weeks) to get everything ready. In order to cross state lines with livestock you have to have certified hay, that can be difficult to find. You also have to have a health certificate from your vet that is no more than 30 days old. We spend countless hours searching the internet for horse hotels. This is places that have corrals as well as hook ups for our trailer. We do this with great anticipation of the end result of said planning, as we get to ride our horses in the mountains and wilderness 

Disrupted Plans

But this year? We are not sure if we will be able to carry out those plans. We all spend time filling our calendars with tentative plans throughout the year. But there is no amount of planning that could have prepared us for our current situation. We have spent more time cancelling rather than enjoying them. Being quarantined from our families and closest friends certainly wasn’t on any of our calendars. We don’t know why this pandemic has occurred. Nor do we know what life will look like post Covid-19. But we can be sure of one thing and that is that God is in control. We can make all the plans our hearts desire but it is God who determines our steps. (Proverbs 16:9) Not only does he determine each step we take but he walks beside us into the future and throughout all of eternity. 

Master Plan

I’m sure you too have a long list of plans that have had to be cancelled or revised. One thing about this pandemic, it has played no favors.  We have all been affected in one way or another. But you know what? It isn’t just this virus that interrupts life. For as long as we have breath in us we are going to have disruptions, disappointments and broken promises. Regardless of what happens with any of our plans we can have peace knowing and trusting in the one who holds the future. Our God has the master plan. When we put our faith and trust in him we have peace knowing that through Christ we have a living hope and a future. 

“He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.” 1 Peter 1:3-4

So let’s not be discouraged as we are rephrasing our plans but keep in mind that although we might spend hours making these plans, it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails. 

Lord, help me to not become frustrated when life throws me a curve and I am unable to keep the plans I have made. I pray God, regardless of my desires, that I look to you for not only my daily needs but for all of my tomorrows. In Jesus name, amen.