Planning vs. Stewarding
Janna Wilson
“A man’s heart deviseth his way:
But the LORD directeth his steps.”
Funny thing, about 16+ yers ago, I said, “no more planning.” I threw up my hands. My plans had been derailed. And as utterly ashamed I am of the thoughts I had, I think it’s important to share this. I had just found out I was expecting my third—and this was definitely not in my plan. We had two girls, 7 and 5, both in school, I had and finally found a bit of freedom at home to pursue a career path to help add to our single income. Little did I know, I was already tenured in one of the most dignified and worthy occupations there has ever been. Mothering. Stay with me.
What I learned in that precious gift of being given our third child, our little golden boy—was that God’s ways are not my ways. And my plans are not God’s plans (Isaiah 55: 8-9). It was a very profound lesson that I have carried since that year, 2006. So if planning is a moot point, and God’s perfect will is finite, why bother?
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Some of you who know this about me might find it a bit ironic, then, that I work for a planner company! Ha! And even years before that I would create little planners and chore charts and what not for the kids and for free downloads on my blog. I actually had started designing planner stickers and had a whole stationery shop dreamed up about 8 years ago. (More on that later.) But suffice to say, planning feels imperative for this disorganized chaos I call life.
So for 2023, I wanted to really evaluate the rhythms in our life and home, and invest some time in “planning” and praying about this year, my hopes, our desires as a family, but still to really just hold it all loosely. My mother’s famous quote, “Put all your eggs in one basket and give it to God.” I think these points are the difference in planning and stewarding. My point is, I think we Christians should probably just really focus on the latter which, of course, definitely does include the former.
Our culture says, “By failing to plan, you are preparing to fail,” well, technically that was Benjamin Franklin that said that, but I have to disagree—at least a little. The truth is, by failing to invest your heart and mind into the worship and leading of a loving God and Holy Spirit, we may fail to yearn or ever experience the most worthy desires and blessings as they should be received and enjoyed. By failing to have total and complete faith in God’s plan for your life, are we not dishonoring our Father? Being discontent with the provisions God makes for us is just a sin that needs confessing (note: hand raised, GUILTY). But godliness with contentment is great gain… (Timothy 6:6-10)
I point you to reread paragraph one. Because at that time in my life, yes, I was born again, yes, we were in church, but I was just a few steps down the path to really growing in my spiritual maturity. Again, my shame at not humbly accepting and celebrating that sweet gift of another child into our family can really lead me to a place of mournful thought. Hard lesson learned.
So the definition of stewardship:
: the conducting, supervising, or managing of something
especially : the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one's care
So in looking to the new(ish) year, I’m approaching it with fresh eyes and looking up, not ahead. My job and whole purpose as a human is to serve God. Period. Yours is too, by the way (whether or not you want to accept that position — aka “free will”). So as a control freak / my family refers to me as “CeeFus,” you can understand this is quite a difficult path. I’m action oriented and can be impatient. (My “fruit” is still ripening in that area ha! Gal.5:22-23) So naturally, this doesn’t always make “looking up” (first) a normal posture—insert perseverance. But with having a mind of stewarding verses planning, I feel that this is all much more doable.
Let’s touch on balance. Looking at 7 areas of life that I believe God expects me to steward well (referencing the Proverbial woman here), I’m looking into February with the mind of it being my calling to conduct myself well in all of these areas. It’s my duty to supervise and manage the gifts and provision God has given me rather than just plan for specific outcomes. So I’ve dialed in on tending to these crucial areas: faith, relationships, home, wellness, work, learning and finances. Each week, part of my process is assessing rhythms that keep all of these balls in the air. So far, I’ve really seen some good fruit from this approach.
I hope this makes some semblance of sense. As with any deep contemplation, I could go on and on. But I think I’ll leave this here for now for us all to stew on. And I hope you come back for the next installment of this process and my progress report.
xoxo - Janna