The Care and Control of Christ

For the past four years now, I've celebrated Mother's Day as a "Dog-Mom." But in my perfectly laid out five year plan for my life, I thought I'd have some human babies by now. In the past couple years, Mother's Day has brought up some strange feelings for me. I still sometimes grieve the alternate direction my life has taken, the loss of my plans along with it, and, silly as it may be, I feel the pressure of the biological clock ticking. At the same time, I am also so relieved that I don't have little ones to care for right now and I can just focus on taking care of myself. I don't know when or if the right time for me to be a mother to human babies will come. But it has had me thinking about the third step in recovery.

"We made a decision to turn our lives and our wills over to the care of God." Celebrate Recovery partners this with a Biblical principle based on the beatitude, "Happy are the meek." They phrase this thirst principle as, "Consciously choose to commit all my life and will to Christ's care and control." Turning my life over to the care and control of God means that I trust him with all aspects of my life- even when it doesn't match up with my timeline. That requires that I daily make the choice to live out Proverbs 3:5-6 and ask God to help me trust him with all my heart and lean not on my understanding but submit to him in all my ways so he can keep my paths straight no matter what unexpected obstacles may pop up along the way. That's not always fun or easy. But so far, I can honestly say when I have been living life submitted to the care and control of Christ, I have never been disappointed with HIS plans for me even if they weren't my plans. In contrast, when I try to live life submitted to MY care and control, it almost always ends in disaster. Whether it's related to motherhood or not, I know many of us are in a season of grieving lost plans in this season of COVID-19. It's okay to grieve your plans. Our God is a God who wept even when he knew the end of the story- "Jesus wept." But don't lose hope. Remember that God still has a plan for you. It may not be easier, it may not be what you wanted, but his plan always has a purpose. While there may be pain in the process, when you trust in his plan, submitting your life to his care and control, leaning not on your own understanding but on his, you won't be disappointed.

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