Earlier this summer, I wrote about how you shouldn't plan on anything. You never know what the next day will bring as nothing's set in stone. This is such a valuable lesson that the Bible has discussed how you can't guarantee anything.
So what do you do, then, when your plans do fall apart?
Today, I learned that my plans for college were changing. I had events set in stone, that I believed would happen, for about a year now. Unfortunately, it seemed one small miscalculation was going to send that spiraling all off the rails. I fell apart, I'm not ashamed to admit. I was frustrated. Mad. Upset. I wasn't sure what I was going to do, what decision was the best, or how to respond.
Fortunately, my mom made me breathe. "No matter what, you're going to graduate college," she told me, and she was right. This bump in the road wasn't going to stop me from finishing my education. It was just a speed bump, not a stop sign.
Too often, it's easy to feel like every single plan gone awry is going to result in the end of the world. Whether it's not getting into the right class, making a mistake in front of others, having to cancel plans, or even something bigger like not paying the bill on time, it's not the end of the world. If it's a mistake we can fix, we may get the chance to fix it. If not - well, it's okay! It's alright to make mistakes, to not be able to fix them, and to move on and learn from them.
A mistake can also be God's way of stepping into the situation. My plans for college are changing, and maybe it'll end up for the better. Maybe this is what God had wanted all along, so he made me forget about that tiny, three-credit class until the very last minute, when it was too late to do anything. This could be what he wanted all along, and I'll never know for sure.
It's alright. That's something I need to reassure myself of right now, and I'm sure many do. It's okay that you made a mistake. That you screwed up. This can be the opportunity to go down a new path, or to find out that maybe you wanted something different all along, or fix a previous mistake. Maybe it doesn't even have that deep a meaning! You messed up, there's nothing to learn from it or ways to fix it, and you move on.
It's alright. It's okay. We all try to hold ourselves so desperately to that ideal of perfection that we can never, ever reach and it's okay. We're not perfect. Today, I realized that I messed up my math on credits for college. I drove to two separate locations only to find that they were closed. I got upset over a ridiculous argument, but it ended up fine in the end.
Plans go awry. Things fall apart. And we all need to learn to deal with that. It's much easier said than done, though. Good luck.
