“The highest reward for man’s toil is not what he gets for it, but what he becomes by it.” – John Suskin

 God has a plan and purpose for each of our lives. How do we know what that specific purpose is? How do we know we are even close to living the best and truest life He has for us? Can we accidently miss out on what “it” is?

Each season of life holds different privileges, obstacles, mountains to climb and battles to choose. Everyone. No one is exempt. How are we going to choose what we say yes or no to?

Question: What you value the highest will determine all of your above answers. Here’s the caveat: what we think we value may not be what we long for…  Too much busy and not enough mindfulness can crowd out the latter for the former. Whether it was the season of diapers and midnight feedings; homeschool, working outside of the home, living crunchy or chauffeuring kids to and from events… between my responsibilities (and my own expectations) I would crawl into bed each night feeling overwhelmed and unsuccessful at accomplishing all of the above. All the events, all the discouragement weren’t necessarily because my lists were too long, rather because I did not know how to create space for what my heart longed for the most.

“We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps.” – Proverbs 16:9 (NLT)

God places a deep longing in each of us. When our individual “worlds” are busy, we can start to believe that the success we see in our culture is what we really long for. Our culture makes working a few extra hours to have a bit more spending money; cute and coordinating outfits for our families, our own backyard gardens like fulfilling life endeavors. I’ve yet to have the perfect family photo satisfy the desires of my heart. Briefly, the photo that shows how well we coordinate and can hold a smile bring satisfaction. However, after re-living the day, will my kids remember the fun outtakes, or the angry parent trying to get everyone to smile….

“We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps.” – Proverbs 16:9 (NLT)

Our steps may not match the plans that we have set in place. This does not mean that we altogether quit making plans (and having our family’s photos taken).  What it does mean is that we need to determine to take our desires to Him. And then we leave them there in silence, and allow Him the space to shape and guide our next steps.