A Year of Smiles – Day 329

Reason to SMILE #329: TRUSTING GOD’S PLAN

This was my Christmas tree.

It was not being very cooperative. And it certainly was not making me SMILE. (Nor my husband – Yikes!)

This is the third year that we’ve purchased a real tree. I suppose it was time for one of them to rebel. 😉 No matter what we did, the tree simply would not stand up straight. We tried everything. It was so frustrating. I almost resigned myself to decorating this leaning tower of pine needles and cocking my head to one side every time I looked at it. Tilt to the right. There! It’s perfect! 😉

As I surveyed my crooked tree, I wondered why it was being so difficult. Didn’t it know that soon it would be decorated with twinkling lights and colorful ornaments? Didn’t it know that soon it would be fulfilling it’s purpose – being a Christmas tree?

Yeah. I realize it didn’t know anything. It’s a tree but by the way it was fighting me, I couldn’t help but see it as an ornery child or…

… a stubborn Christian.

We often act like this uncooperative evergreen, don’t we? We hear God’s voice telling us to move and we feel His hand nudging us in the direction He wishes us to go but we tenaciously refuse. We’re quite comfortable with where we are, who we are and what we’re doing. Why should we make a change?

“No, God,” we object, “I don’t want to go there; I’d feel out of place. I don’t want to do that; I’m not qualified. I don’t want to get rid of that habit; it’s not that bad.” Our objections are plentiful and the “buts” flow freely as we firmly plant our feet or run in the opposite direction. Surely, God doesn’t know what He’s doing. Surely, God is mistaken.

Oh, but if we only knew. The change we so adamantly refuse or the direction we do not follow or the call we do not heed is only pointing us to our intended purposes. If we’d yield to the Heavenly Father’s urgings to move, to change, to follow, we’d enable God to create something amazing with our lives. If we’d trust His Plan, we’d discover a life more fulfilling, more abundant and more beautiful than we’d ever find on our own.

And in following God’s plan, we’d always find a reason to SMILE.

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