Motherhood and the Traveling Pants

I' m not referring to the traveling pants that may initially come to mind -- summer adventures and growing-up lessons shared between good friends. I'm speaking of the kind of pants that are ever traveling just out of reach of their potential owner -- me! We have been in a rather lengthy breaking-down season. Normally when things break down, it happens in sets of three. Everyone knows that. We have been through multiple sets of three over the last several weeks. What does that have to do with pants? I've been planning now for several months to get a new pair of jeans. My favorite jeans finally earned the right to be retired to the Museum of Jeans With Holes In Unacceptable Places. My jean-buying plans, however, keep getting delayed "one more pay period". (Jean buying is another blog all of it's own!) Things that break must be fixed. And, I endeavor not to put my own "needs" above those of my family. It's simply a season of life that sometimes necessitates traveling pants. (By the way, it's a season I'm enjoying immensely.)

It reminds me of the passage in James 4 that refers to our plans when we say such things as, "To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain...ye know not what shall be on the morrow...ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that." Admittedly, James probably didn't have jeans on his mind when he wrote this, but the lesson is applicable.

Actually, it is the time of year when I plan until my brain feels like someone took it out, played with it, and put it back in upside down -- school curriculum, fall schedules, etc. Last week I just happened to pick up a little devotional book we have that was written by Henry Blackaby, and the devotion for that day was incredibly timely. (It was almost as if God knew I needed a little reminder...) The thought was based on one small phrase from the model prayer Jesus gave his disciples in Matthew 6, "Thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven". In heaven, God's will is done as soon as it is known. On earth, not so much. I sometimes get so involved in planning, I can't even discern God's will, much less perform it. I need to to slow down, pray, and listen. God has a plan. I would do well to seek that plan and make sure "my plans" fall in line!

Happy fall (almost), my dear readers!