Best Laid Plans

What do you do when your plans fall through?

Do you throw in the towel and hang you head in despair?

Do you feel ashamed, angry and organise a pity party?

Do you feel the world and God have conspired to truncate your plans?

How do you think Mary and Joseph felt?

They were engaged to be married. Their plan was to settle down and have a small family and continue as "normal couple". Whatever that is.

Not only were their plans messed up, it felt like the whole world was against them, the king was after them, their families must have ostracise them. They may have asked themselves a thousand times Why God, why us? They didn't understand it then but later did.

Just like Mary and Joseph your plans for 2008 may have fallen through. Your dreams became your worse nightmare, you feel you’ve been badly messed up and you really can't understand what God is up to and you would love to understand. Some things that happen to us are not God's perfect plans for our lives, true. Things like Sickness, rape, injustice, war, hatred, e.t.c. these are not his perfect will. So when things are not going according to God's plan for our lives he changes our plans.

According to Rick Warren, when God changes our plan he is trying to do 3 things in our life

1. Get our attention. In our pain God speaks. Seek him through whatever you are going through and you will find him.

2. He has a better plan. He doesn't change your plans unless he has a better plan. Just as he did for Mary and Joseph -His is bigger, better and more rewarding than ours. It may be harder sometimes, but it is better. Mary and Joseph's plan turned out right after all and they later understood what God was up to. That is why we are here today celebrating God's perfect plan for Mary and Joseph's life.

3. He wants us to learn to seek and trust him through the changes. Seek him for his perfect plan for your life in 2009. If you are worried about 2009, anxious about the current economic situation or any other situation in your life, trust him to bring his best plan to pass for your life and our Nation. Seek him, not the solution to the problem or an explanation to the situation, but when you seek him for who he is as a saviour, he comes and brings with him the solution and explanation.

As you celebrate today, ponder in your heart the gift of God's dear son to us. Look to the future with hope and believe that in 2009 he will bring his perfect plan for your life to pass. I urge you to seek his plan for your life and not your plan for your life because his plans are the best laid plans.

My will for yours given in surrender

My choices for what you choose letting go of self

My desires for what you want only your best will do

Lord my everything for all of you.
© Deboo December 2008

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christmas wishes

We have less than 3 days before Christmas and it is true that the excitement is not as it was this time last year. I know this is due to the doom and gloom we hear and see around us. Lets face it 2008 hasn't exactly been rosy and smooth as we would have loved it to.

I personally didn't expect 2008 to turn out the way it did for me, but I am glad I lived through it and am here to celebrate and testify of his goodness. If like me you've had an unbelievable year packed with eventful details some good and some bad, you have every reason to celebrate. Yes we may not have ticked off everything off our wish list, but one thing we have is our hope.

The hope of a better day, the hope that we are still here to attempt those tasks we didn't succeed at. The hope of having a saviour who is rooting for us, urging us not to give up. For me, I am celebrating the hope that the birth of Christ brought to me. I am reminded of his love for me.

That he is indeed my
My Counsellor,
My Strength,
My Wonderful saviour
And my Prince of Peace
He has indeed been Immanuel to me. "God with us"
He has been with me every step of the way,
Through the steepest hill and the lowest valley
He carried me through safely beneath his wings.
This is what I celebrate.


Straight from my heart is this Christmas wish to encourage you to hope in his birth, that he came to be

A light in darkness,
A way in the thickest forest
A lamp to light the path
A shield in time of war
A help in time of need
A saviour is he
His birth brought peace
His resurrection brought victory
His ascension brought hope
A saviour he is.

Merry Christmas

© Deboo December 2008

Pictures by "photobucket"

A Busy Year

Have you suddenly realised this is one of the most busy year ever?
Have you noticed you were rushed off your feet every single time?
Did you at one point wish you had more time?
Indeed, this has been of the busiest year for me, from work to family life, to friends to everything! At one point I muttered Gosh! I just can't wait for the year to end.

But you see amidst the busyness we still found time for the things that were important to us, to call our dearest friends, to hang out with our families, to sleep - who is too busy to sleep! To go to work! Yea, try telling your boss I was so busy with other things I couldn't come to work.
So despite our busy schedule we still found time for those things that means a lot to us.

So what have you left undone because you were too busy?
How has this year turned out for you?
Who have you lost touch with as a result of your tight schedule; perhaps the relationship wasn't that important to you?

Which resolutions have you to fulfil?
Are you celebrating and partying because the year turned out exactly as you wanted? Bravo!
Or are you eagerly waiting for the year to end so you can begin a New One?

As this year rapidly draws to a close, take a look back and take stock of your actions: You've still got time to remedy those areas you've fallen short.
Don't wait till 31st December 2008 to take stock, start now. Evaluate your relationships with family, friends, God and society, where did you fall short how can you improve next year.

Each moment was supposed to be lived to the fullest,
Working at each task as desired,
But as moment turned into minutes,
Minutes into hours,
Hours into days, and days into months
Resolutions remain unmet
As we dither and tizzy at our task,
We whimper and simmer at the though of completing chores
We wait as vultures waiting on a carcass
Time passes and we wonder where it went.
When all the while we had it
But choose to think we will always have it to do as we please.

Say, pause, rewind and play back the clock of your life, seek to improve on this years performance and as you do ask the father to ferry you safely into the shores of 2009 with zeal, vigour and strength for the journey ahead.

© Deboo December 2008