Jeremiah 29:11

Since we're only working on one chapter a week now, I'd like to break the next chapter into sections and spend more time thinking about the truths of that section. God's plans for us: God caused the Israelites to go into captivity. He had a plan with that. He wasn't (as a very good friend has said) sitting up there saying, "Oh no, now what am I going to do?" He does have a plan for us and in the case of the Israelites, it was discipline for disobeying.

Sometimes, it's something that causes us growth, not because of wrong-doing on our part. As in the case of my son. He had to do physical therapy because of tight muscles in his leg. The physical therapy was painful, and it wasn't because he'd done anything wrong. But growth for him meant enduring painful sessions at the physical therapist's office.

How encouraging it is to know that God has a plan for me. With the status change in my life, I'm glad to know that he can enable me. So far there hasn't been a real change yet. I normally have weekends off and I just pulled a regular 64 hour week with extra stress because I was leaving. But I was able to get up and get the waffles made, make the bread for the day (or hopefully two) and get a bunch of bread starter in the freezer. We had a bag of flour that didn't fit in our pantry, so was sitting on the floor. In our house that is dangerous because of all the water that gets spilled. So I made it up into bags with yeast and sugar and salt for the start of my bread making. Kind of exciting to have that done, also all week I've been making extra of whatever we're having and bagging it up so I think I have about 10 meals in the freezer.

Those bagged meals would have been nice while I was working, but they'll help a lot when we're in the garden working and run in for some supper. Just grab a bag and defrost and go. Or better yet, get it out in the morning. I'm not so good at remembering that.

I'm excited about this change in my life and nervous too. I'm excited to see ways that I can save and help my family grow. This is God's plan for me right now and I want to embrace it completely. These thoughts are based on the A part of chapter 21 of Loving God with All Your Mind.