A Piece from My Youth Newsletter

Control Issues Anyone?
As I write this, there are some things in my life that are in limbo. Decisions that are going to be made – that I have no say in. I DO NOT like it.
Why don‘t I like it? Because I just assume get things my way – all the time. As a matter of fact, earlier today, Richard and I were at Staples looking at chairs for our little office area. They’re cheap little college-type desk chairs and they had them in four colors: black, bright blue, bright pink, and purple with green and yellow flowers. None of them matched our earth-tone living room, so I thought we’d go with the cutest one: purple with flowers. Richard, of course, wanted black, but was willing to compromise with the blue (which would have looked awful in our living room). So I turned to Evelyn and Riley and asked them which chair they liked, they’re girly-girls, so I was confident they would side with me. And they did. Richard was out-voted and I’m sitting on a chair that is purple with green and yellow flowers as I write this.
So I used my womanly art of manipulation to get what I wanted. Oh sisters! How many times have our husbands, brothers, fathers, boyfriends, etc. given into our artful attempts of manipulating? We’re soo good at it! And we get it honest: our mother, Eve, was the first to pull this trick. Remember the apple? I feel bonded to Eve in knowing that she too struggled with being in control. Isn’t that what the fall of man was really about? Eve wanted to know – everything – and she was willing to manipulate to get it.
The truth is that God isn’t like Adam (or Richard). He doesn’t give in to our attempts at manipulating Him: whining, bargaining, debating, pleading. God is God. He knows what is best for us.
"For 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). God’s plans for us our so much better than any plans we could make, even when they don‘t seem that way in the present. So as I slowly, painfully, learn to surrender my control to God’s control, I want to encourage you to join me.
P.S. Ask me, and I’ll let you know what God’s answers to the "limbo decisions" were.