Planning

I find myself very ambivalent with regard to planning. Jesus both commends and condemns it. Of the one who started to build without planning for the cost, Jesus said he would be mocked by everyone. Yet the one who planned so well as to store up for himself for years to come Jesus also reproved.

I think there is something important to be learned with regard to planning and parenting in the gospel. If we set about parenting without a plan of how to do it, we are surely those who deserve mockery. Yet if we have a plan, and are confident in our plan, we are just as foolish. It seems that there is a sort of planning that is required that weighs the costs, sets a course, and yet trust in God rather than the plan.

There are quite literally hundred of daily things in which I see this. If I do not have a plan for how to teach Elisabeth the history of salvation, and the commands of God, it will not happen. But if I trust my ability to plan, structure and teach, I dishonor the Holy Spirit, who is the only true teacher.

I think it is fair to say that planning can be an expression of trust, or of arrogance; lack of planning does not demonstrate trust, but folly. We must plan under the hand of God, and be ready for Him to redirect us at any time.