“In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord established their steps.” Proverbs 16:9
My husband and I have some really close couple-friends that we enjoy traveling with. My friend (I’ll call her B) absolutely loves planning the trips. She’ll begin working on the next itinerary as soon as we return from our latest vacation. She says it’s like working a puzzle, figuring out how what we all want to do can be worked into the Grand Plan. Most years we’ve gotten to visit everything on our list, but his year with Covid was different. We often had to make adjustments. We had planned our steps, but in some instances, we had to follow another path. And the forced change sometimes led us to an interesting place we would have never found otherwise.
In A Covert Cowboy Christmas, Rebekah and Ethan have planned their lives well. They are both forty-ish with successful careers. She manages retirement plans, and he’s a Hollywood actor. Their lives are full. But once they meet, they realize God may be leading them in a direction they would have never sought. That the steps of the courses they’ve planned may not be the ones God will establish in their lives.
No matter what our age or stage in life, God will establish the steps of our lives. We need only be ready to follow.
I began writing late in life. I’d always wanted to teach, not write. I had planned my course, and the Lord established my steps. I loved my job. I taught part-time in a small Christian school. It fit my life and schedule well by allowing me to work but also be available for my children. When they were home, I was home. It was the perfect job for me and my family.
Then circumstances forced me to seek another job. I had to take a detour from the course I’d planned. Yet, at this new job, I met a woman who was a writer, and she convinced me to try my hand at it. She mentored and encouraged me.
Had the Lord not established my steps in this direction, I may never sought to become a writer. While I’d planned for my life to follow a different course, now I know writing is the right path for me to follow at this time in my life.
And what about on those vacation detours? Had we not been willing to change courses, we would have never seen the Dogigator in Abita Springs, LA. Or shared a Sunday lunch with the locals at the Y Restaurant in WV.
So, whatever your age and stage, keep your heart open to following the path God has established for you.
Carol James
Streams in the Wasteland
~Redemptive Romance~
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