God’s Plans, Not Mine

Posted by jillhuitron on Jul 14, 2010 in Daily Bread | 5 comments

I was divorced back in 2000 after a long marriage to the wrong man. I do have two wonderful kids (27 and 24 year old) from that marriage however. After my divorce I had to go back to work and not be the stay at home mom, chauffeur, nurse, consultant, volunteer, homework task master, cook, planner, nutritionist, maid, housekeeper, therapist and organizer that I was before. Now, there were other plans for me. I didn’t like those plans at first but I had to make some money to pay for food, the mortgage, clothes, cell phones, gas, car loans and you name it! Sometimes I worked 3-4 jobs at a time to make ends meet.

When the kids and I would escape to my family’s lake house, I would lie awake at night talking to God and trying to listen. What was my future now that it had been turned upside down? I had to learn to listen to Him and try to sense His direction many, many times. During that first summer, I prayed that if God wanted me married again, that He would bring me a mate with certain qualities, the top one being a growing relationship with Him. However, I really didn’t think I wanted to ever be married again, I didn’t need a man. I had God as my husband, protector, advocate and comforter. God, however, had other plans. Two years later, he put Daniel in my life, when I really didn’t want a man, need a man or have time for a man.

Well, I am here to tell you that God’s plans are to prosper you and not harm you, to give you hope and a future! That is what He did for me. I know it is because I trusted in Him and prayed for my list of 10 things that I wanted in a mate if I was ever to get married again. Remember my top item? He had to be growing in a relationship with God. I dated a few guys during those first 2 years but I knew after about 1 minute that I could never be attracted to them as none of them knew my Savior. When Daniel and I meet, we covered that subject in the first 5 minutes of our conversation. God had started telling him that he had to do things God’s way about that time. I won’t tell you more, that is his story that he might share one day.

God had a plan for us to be together, and it was obvious to both of us within a short time. We got married 14 months later and we dated God’s way, not man’s way. That verse was the verse we used on our wedding announcements. We know He has a plan to prosper us and not harm us, to give us a hope and a future. We are each other’s future because God is in the middle of this marriage; He is the center that we build our relationship around.

When you seek God with your whole heart, you will find Him. He is waiting to be found, longing for you to find Him. He has a plan for you, to prosper and not to harm you. It may be that you are going through some painful times, we have in our marriage. We had a custody suit over Daniel’s youngest son, my son was diagnosed with leukemia, my daughter was extremely anorexic, my ex sued me, and Daniel’s first wife died who was the mother of his sons. There were always struggles financially and emotionally too. Life is never easy when we are on this side of heaven, but God does have a plan and His plan always wins out as long as we keep our hope and trust in Him and stay in communication through prayer and studying His word.