Who says kids are the only ones who need new school supplies?
Each year, around this time, I find myself yearning for a new pen and a new calendar. I know, I know…there are still four more months left this year, but there’s something about the arrival of fall and new routines that make me feel like I need an organizational reset. Some people need pumpkin spice. I need a new day planner. To each their own.
Also, are you particular about your calendar? Some like it digital… I prefer analog. And I have a favorite journal for this reason and quite a few specifications. Needs to be hardcover. Pages need to be thick – no pen bleedthrough. I need it to be spiral bound so I can open it all the way flat. I need a whole month view and a weekly view. And goodness, make it cute. Thankfully, The Paper Source understands me and has a 17 month calendar that meets all my obnoxious criteria. Plus, they change the cover choices each year, and it starts with the final months of 2026 and then all of 2027. Its like they get me! A clean start + a fresh page. If you wanna be planner twins with me, this is the one I just bought: 17 Month Calendar
As it arrived in todays mail, I felt a prompting to do something I’ve never done: Pray over the pages before I write my first task, appointment, schedule or note. Then, I thought, “No Duh! Why have I never done that before?” I started thinking of scripture verses about plans and God. I will put them down below.
So, I guess this is your invitation to join me!
First, put this song on:
Then, lets place our hand on the cover and pray. Lets ask the Lord to guide our prayer. If you’d like a prompt, this is mine:
“Lord, thank You for the gift of Your plans for my life. Thank you that you have plans to prosper me and not to harm me, to give me a hope and a future. I pray for Your divine wisdom and insight to align my heart with Yours – that You would establish my steps and Your purposes would prevail. I commit to You all that I do (and that my family does), and ask that You would establish our plans. My life is not determined by my own to-do list or my own definition of success. Where you want margin in our families calendar, make it so. Let Your yes be our yes, let Your no be our no.
I commit this season and next year to You, Lord. Thank you that Your ways are higher than our ways, and Your thoughts higher than our thoughts. I’d much rather You be in charge of this calendar than me. I look forward with eager expectation, anticipation and delight in all that You have for us this year and I bless it in the mighty name of Jesus, Amen.”
I’m purposefully planning to write in pencil, as an act of faith – that Jesus would guide and erase as He sees fit to overwrite my plans with His.
I’d love to hear any other verses that come to your mind as we do this together!
Proverbs 16:9
“In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.” (NIV)
Proverbs 19:21
“Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” (NIV)
Jeremiah 29:11
“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.” (NIV)
Proverbs 16:3
“Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.” (NIV)
Psalm 20:4
“May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.” (NIV)
James 4:13-15
“Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city…’ Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.'” (NIV)
Proverbs 15:22
“Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.” (NIV)
Catch hope & encouragement on Middays with Sarah Taylor, between 10am – 2pm!
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