By this Saturday, I will officially be halfway to 70. It was so nice of my best girl to share that nugget with me last Friday as we pigged out on BBQ and looked forward to our birthdays coming up 13 days apart in the next 2 weeks. But it’s ok I think because she heard 60 is the new 50 so I guess that would make 35 the new 25 or something to that effect.

{image via the graphics fairy}

Unlike pigs, time sure does seem to be flying.

So far we’ve nailed down birthday plans to procure chicken salad from this awesome lunch cart down in the city (or make it in her kitchen depending on how adventurous we feel on that day) and overhaul our wardrobes. I am still sitting on the fashion fence with one foot planted firmly in a wardrobe fit for a teenage dream and one foot in the sensible and classier more grown up shoe of a lady who means business. (When your teen Sunday School attendees like your outfits, it’s hard to know where their admiration is coming from…do they like my dress because it’s something they would wear now or is my style something they aspire to when they are grown up?!?! Maybe I just need to say thanks and move along!)

{image via the graphics fairy}

At any rate, there are plans upon plans rolling in my head for how to spend the end of the week which was wide open with a little time off that I’d been saving for myself. But that big wide chunk of time is starting to fill up with sewing to-dos, get togethers and appointments.

Looking back in the blog, I see I had grand plans this time last year too. Some of them have started coming to fruition and some are yet to come. While still working and taking in sewing projects, I’m cooking up crafty ideas and preparing for a show in just over a month. {Cue butterflies and slightly sweaty palms…} I had all day last Saturday to create, craft and collaborate with all my pieces of paper that held long awaited ideas for products and pretties and here’s what I accomplished at the days end…

…well that one bag and one other yet to be divulged trinket… I have to have some secrets to keep you coming back right?? I must have used up all the motivating forces that were working for me in my last post…

When I got the confirmation of my show booth last week, I declared that I wasn’t going to worry or over think my schedule or push myself to become a sewing maniac. I was just going to go with the flow and whatever got made was going to be fine (obviously this was on one of those feel good days…) But on Saturday when the Serger and I had a slight misunderstanding and I stomped off to pick up the swiffer and resign myself to crying and cleaning my house instead of creating because it must not be meant to work out how I planned it, I may have had to eat a few of those sweet and salty words.

But God is not a God of disorder. Nor does he work at my command or in my time frame. Ouch.

I forget sometimes that when I’m too busy pushing my own agenda, he’s waiting for just the right moment to pull me over into his. And he’ll use any means necessary.

In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps. ~ Proverbs 16:9

The husband, sensing a disturbance in the force patted the couch next to him and turned my attention to some pit master’s cook off show which made me temporarily forget all about tangled threads of the serger (and my knotted up thought processes at the moment too.) And it also made me yearn for true NC style BBQ (are you sensing a food theme? Are you hungry? Me too…) After a little time out I was able to redirect my efforts and I’m really happy that it took the whole afternoon to make that one beautiful bag.

All this really got me pondering: Are we praying through our decisions looking for God’s seeds that he puts on our path or are we plowing through planting our own rows, putting our own seeds in and then asking Him to bless our efforts after the fact? Oftentimes we get so attached to our own ideas that we forget who put them there in the first place and we mistakenly think we’re the only ones who can make them all happen.

{image via the graphics fairy}

And if I had any doubt about how foolish it is to operate in my own strength, efforts and calendaring, here’s what God threw my way just now as I stopped to seek a little refreshment while writing this post. It’s nice to get reassurances that you’re heading in the right direction now and then…!

{devotion via Journey magazine}

As I go through these days where I want to make planning and producing my idol, I’m continually reminded that God has some different priorities. The most important being the people he has put in my path. Those people that feed my soul with time spent soaking up each others presence while watching mouthwatering cooking shows. Those friends that point out my hidden talent of matching my outfits up nicely without really matching everything (maybe I’m not such a teeny bopper after all in the dressing department- though I still have a soft spot for my grey knock off converse…) And those funny folks that regale me with their stories of stolen three-legged alligators and monsters in the toilet (Don’t ask…you really don’t want to know…)

People are always more important than plans or problems in God’s handbook.

So I’m asking for forgiveness. For direction as always. For course correction and refreshment when I run too far in my own strength. And for help to spend my time wisely and love my people more than all my plans. God’s given me all kinds dreams and ideas I’m sure that in the right time they will all be fashioned together and blossom into something beautiful.

♥

Linking up over at Miss Holley’s today!