Meditation

Read Proverbs 3:5-6

“I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”—Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

As a junior in college, I daydreamed about my senior year: basketball games, random road trips, late nights watching reality TV. It would be perfect. But things took a turn as I struggled in my chosen field of study and realized most of my close friends would graduate in May. I tried to stay positive, but things only got worse as my last good friend told me she wasn’t coming back to school in the fall. My plans and expectations for senior year were completely crushed.

As fall semester began, I was overwhelmingly lonely, stressed, and jealous of others. I felt like a failure, and that made me angry at God. Why am I being punished? I didn’t know what I had done wrong. However, as I reflected and read scriptures like Jeremiah 29:11, I realized that I had forgotten something important: God’s ways are not my own.

As I’ve surrendered to God’s plan, I’ve gained a new outlook at school. I’ve even made some new friends, maybe ones I wouldn’t have gotten to know if I had lived out my own plan. God was and still is leading me through this journey toward a better me.

Prayer: Dear God, help us not to hold too tightly to our own expectations and hopes so that we may align our desires with yours. Amen.

Thought for the day: God’s ways are not my ways.

—Siyhani Jones, Illinois