The best laid plans of mice and men . . .


Proverbs 16:9--Have you ever heard of the saying, "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry"? It is from the poem To the Mouse by the 18th century Scottish author, Robert Burns.

It's the story of a field mouse who carefully builds a winter nest in a wheat field, only to have to accidentally tilled over by a young man.

In the mouse's small world, her location for the nest seemed perfect. In the young man's world, there was nothing standing in the way of tilling the soil. Both plans were shortsighted due to their imperfect understanding of the world around them.

As I thought about this poem, I realized sometimes we're the mouse and sometimes we're the farmer.

Sometimes we have no idea just how big our world is and how it will affect our plans. Other times, we may know more of how the world works, but there are other things at work we don't know about. And how easy it is to "run over" others in our goals.

We may seek the LORD for our plans, or He may implant a passion in our heart to accomplish something. He may give us a release to proceed with the plan, but because we are flawed--and are not omniscient--we may go off course.

The little mouse was not wrong in building a winter nest, but her location was not the best.

When there is a stall in our plans and it causes us to doubt we heard from GOD, there may be something else at work. This is why the second part of this verse is so amazing.

When we go off course, He is there to re-direct our steps back on course. We just need to seek Him and pay attention.

If there is a stall, He may have us lingering to show us something important to our relationship with Him. Or that there is a little "mouse nest" we need to avoid.

Be open to altering our course, even if it's uncomfortable or frustrating. We just need to know He will get us to our destination--His plan will not go awry.

May GOD direct our steps, my friends.

Proverbs 16:9--The heart of man plans his course, but ADONAI directs his steps. Tree of Life Bible Society Tree of Life Version - TLV #tlvbible#tlvproverbs
[WATCH Tree of Life Bible Society's CEO, Daniah Greenberg and me, Terri Gillespie dig a little deeper with this proverb. Check us out at Tree of Life Bible Society, Monday through Friday, LIVE at 8:30am EST. Watch previous episodes there as well. Stay wise, my friends!]

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