I love lists.
My life is full of lists—school lists, menu lists, grocery lists, to do lists.... I tend to be a bit of a control freak, and I suppose all those lists help me feel organized and in control of my life. (In control. Ha!)
I used to make lists and get everything done, mostly because I can’t stand to see a list with one or two things not crossed off. Maybe I have undiagnosed OCD. It’s entirely possible. I also had no one but myself affecting my ability to get things done. Then I got married and had children. My life got chaotic, and my lists got longer and more complicated.
That all to explain why I approached this school year in full list-making mode. I searched for the perfect school/life planner. Failing to find one, I geeked out in Excel and made one of my own. It has no pretty art or flowery headings, but boy is it functional. It took me quite a while in June and July to lay it out and find a place for everything in my highly organized homeschool. Then I spent weeks more looking at curriculum and plotting out the perfect progression for each subject, writing out my plans for the first eight weeks in my newly-created planner—in pencil.
(Sorry, where was I? I just had to break up an argument. Oh, that’s right, I was writing my plans in pencil.)
If you’ve read any of the two or three posts I’ve published in the last two years, you know I’ve been at this homeschooling thing a little while. I’m second gen myself, and my 13-year-old has never attended public school. I’m at the point where I’m considered a “veteran” homeschooler, mostly because I’m not a total newbie (or noob, as my children say. Yeah, I’m hip). I’ve always made plans in homeschooling. Extensive plans. Detailed plans. Grandiose plans.
The first several years of our homeschool journey were full of my personal hissy-fits because my plans kept getting derailed. There was no room in my plans for infants and toddlers, slow learners, broken hot-water heaters, or any non-school activity between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. So, I lived a life of constant frustration and guilt, which gradually built up to anger—anger at the people around me, but mostly anger at myself for failing so miserably.
I do believe that planning is good. Even when your plans are thrown off, it reminds you of where you want to end up. You’ll never reach your goals if you don’t know what they are. But it’s taken me years to fully understand that I have to write those plans in pencil.
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11).
Life happens. Plans don’t account for cranky or tired children, a toddler who just figured out the lock on the front door, or dealing with character issues.
Plans don’t account for clogged drains or overflowing toilets, unexpected visitors, or chickens getting out.
Plans don’t account for lost jobs, moving to a new town, home-destroying fires, prolonged illness, miscarriages, or death.
More importantly, my plans don’t always account for God’s plans. I know He has plans for me, and I know they’re good. I don’t know what they look like, and I don’t always like them when I find out. But they’re God’s plans, and they’re better than mine.
"For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts" (Is. 55:9).
You might be thinking, God surely doesn’t plan every little or large thing that goes wrong in my life?!
Well, no, I don’t believe He does. We live in a sinful and distorted world, and there’s a lot of free will at play. But I know nothing that happens is a surprise to Him. COVID-19 wasn't a surprise. The riots weren’t a surprise. Afghanistan isn't a surprise. All our daily worries and frustrations and derailed plans are no surprise to Him. He has plenty of power and love to include them in His plans and, even more, turn them into something good for us. In every unexpected turn, He can work for our good—even if it’s “only” to build a little more patience in us every day.
"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose" (Rom. 8:28).
So as you begin this school year, homeschooling or not, make all the plans you want. But write them in pencil.
(Now I'd welcome dinner ideas, because it's 5:15 p.m. and I have no clue.)
