The Best Laid Plans

Hello, my name is Marian Frizzell, and I’m a planner.

I like a long checklist with little boxes that I can tick off.

I like schedules and organizers and bullet journals.

I like goal setting, resolutions, and step-by-step plans.

I’m a planner—but life happens.

My love for planning was severely complicated by the fact that I married into the military, where making plans in the punchline to every other joke. Then, the Man and I produced five kids (only one of whom we planned), who like to get sick and change their minds and have actual needs at inopportune times (go figure). These days, we make back up plans to our back up plans and still have to go back to the drawing board.

And here’s the thing: being a planner is not a bad thing. Not even with complications. Planning enables us to look at our lives with intention, to see each day in light of eternity (if we’re planning well).

But planning can come at a steep price if we’re not careful.

We make our plans and are disappointed when they don’t work out the way we imagined. We set our goals and nearly kill ourselves trying to achieve them, even after circumstances have changed. We stick to our schedule, even when other unexpected complications arise.

What we need is intentionality with grace.

We need to look forward, remembering what matters—the goals we want to strive for, the longterm growth we hope to see, the eternity we hold in our hearts—but we also need to hold out grace to ourselves in the struggle.

So here’s the thing: make your plans, but remember your reality.

Lace up those running shoes, but if you get out there and you feel like you’re dying, remember: something is better than nothing. And you can bust out the running shoes again tomorrow.

Print off that adorable cleaning schedule, but if, halfway through mopping, a friend drops by in need of a vent session, put that dripping mop away and go be the listening ear she needs. The rest of the floor can wait until next week.

Check that challenging book out of the library, but if you only get through three chapters before it’s due again—you still read more of it than if you’d never gotten it out at all. And you can always check it out again.

Don’t let your plans dictate your self-worth. Be intentional—by all means, make those plans, set those goals, write that check list, do things that matter with your one small life—but give yourself grace when you need it. Because no matter what we accomplish, before we are planners, before we are achievers, before we are successes (and that can mean so many things to so many different people), before we are any of that, we are first and foremost children of God, made in His image, beloved.

And just as we offer grace to our children, so does He offer grace to us. And who are we to know better than Him?

Intentionality with grace…because even the best laid plans must be held loosely, even as we hold tightly to our Savior.