Homework for my Monday morning girls.

"Trying to improve on God's plan is more pretentious than trying to improve the Mona Lisa with an ink pen.  All you'll do is ruin the masterpiece."

We are working our way through Hebrews 11 with John MacArthur in our bible study.  This week's assignment was a flurry of reading from Genesis 26 - Exodus 14.  We have an unfair advantage as we read about the Patriarchs.  We know the end of the stories.  We know about God's promise to Abraham and we know that God will work anything for good to accomplish His purpose.  We know that he can and will use deceit (Jacob and Esau, Joseph sold into slavery, Rachel and Leah's father), reluctant obedience (Isaac), conditional obedience (Jacob), wicked edicts (Moses in basket), and foolish women (Rebekah, Potiphar's wife) to bring His plans to fruition.

Today is Nate and I's thirteenth anniversary.  We married and began our family while we were still young.  The first year was a little rough and we both went through some "what if's" and "we should have's".  We have an advantage now that we didn't have then to know that love, even if it starts out unsteady and with shaky steps, can bloom into a masterpiece.  This story isn't over, we have no idea what will happen today.  We may be faced with a trial unlike we have ever known, but my prayer is that we can face any struggle together.  God, in His faithfulness, knew that the selfish, spoiled youngest girl needed the stubborn, sarcastic oldest boy to accomplish His purpose in their marriage.   This song was sang at our wedding...

Recognize it?  Psalm 27... our study's memorization for the week.  It sounded great at our wedding, but we didn't know what we were getting into.  We didn't know what dwelling in the house of Lord was going to mean.  It meant giving up of self, it meant following the Lord wherever He leads, it meant clinging to each other when we felt alone, it meant not keeping a record of each other's sins, it meant a vow to each other and to God that was not easily broken.  I look forward to the rest of the days of our life together, we can be confident and fearless if we continue to seek after the Lord and his salvation.

God is the artist and the author of our life.  He knows what happens when the last page is written and the paint has dried.  We can't flip to the last page and we can't unveil the painting, but we can boldly step in faith and trust God and His perfect plan, just as the great heroes of our faith did.  Don't ruin the masterpiece by impatiently picking up your own ink pen.  Let God paint.