2026.07.05 | I Make a Lot of Plans. I Don't Always Check With God First.

I run a tight ship.

School schedules. Soccer practice. Dentist appointments. Summer camp logistics. Meal planning for the week. I have a system and the system mostly works and I feel better when everything is in order.

I pray over our family. I ask God to bless what we're doing. I thank him when the week goes smoothly.

But David Ord said something in Acts 19 on Sunday that I've been sitting with since we got home and put the kids to bed.

He pointed to one line from Paul - just before arriving in Ephesus. Paul is saying goodbye to people he cares about. Telling them he'll come back. And he says:

"I will return to you if God wills."

Not: I'll be back. 

Not: I'm planning on it. 

Not: let me check the calendar.

If God wills.

David asked: do you go where God wills? Are you sensitive to his voice? Or do you just make your own decisions and ask God to bless them afterward?

I sat with that question longer than I wanted to.

Because if I'm being honest about how I actually parent - I plan first and pray second. I decide which school. Which sport. Which neighborhood. Which schedule. And then I bring God in at the confirmation stage. Lord, please bless what I've already decided.

There's a decision we've been going back and forth on as a family. Whether to stay where we are or make a move. I've already run the numbers. Looked at the school ratings. Mapped out the commute. Made a pros and cons list.

And somewhere in all of that I forgot to actually ask God what he wanted.

David went to James 4 - don't boast about tomorrow. Don't say I'm going to do this and this and this. That's sin. Instead, hold your plans loosely. Submit to his will. Do what he says.

There's a posture in "if God wills" that I haven't been modeling for my kids. I want them to see parents who pray before they decide - not just parents who pray after they've already committed. I want them to see what it looks like to hold the future with open hands. To say: I think we're going to do this - but only if God wills.

Because they're watching how we make decisions. They're absorbing whether faith is something we live by or something we refer to afterward.

Paul was one of the most intentional people in all of the New Testament. He wasn't passive. He made plans, he traveled, he reasoned, he argued, he built. But his intentionality was in service of God's direction - not his own preferences.

I want to be that kind of parent. Not less intentional. But oriented differently.

This week I reopened the decision I thought I'd already made. And instead of asking God to bless it, I asked him what he actually wants.

It's a different prayer. But I think it's the right one.