Thankful Thursday: A Beautiful Plan

I follow a lot of blogs. I don't read them all regularly, and I read some more than others, but I love to read blogs.

Perhaps it's an addiction, but it's one that often expands my mind and heart and challenges my soul.

I read stories of hope and life and self-sacrifice and giving and redemption and my heart is so often flooded with so many emotions that the only outlet is tears flooding my eyes. It's inspiring and motivating to see and hear all the things that God is doing around the world and how He's just using humble people to do it.

Today, I'm thankful that God has a beautiful plan. I love the analogy of the tapestry. God is working on a big, beautiful tapestry and sometimes we get frustrated, overwhelmed, discouraged, and confused because all we can see is the messy side with all the criss-crossing and interweaving and it looks like a disaster.

But on the other side is a beautiful picture that God is diligently working to create. It's a picture of beauty and grace and mercy and freedom and justice. And it means that God has a beauitful plan for every believer's life.

That beauty may not, and often does not, translate as easy or beautiful from an earthly perspective. It may be tiring and full of persecution. But it's beautiful because God is the one weaving it and He loves us so much more than our minds can imagine.

I'm so thankful today for God's beautiful plan, whatever that is. May I always be so thankful.

"For I know the plans I have for you" —[this is] the LORD's declaration—"plans for [your] welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. " Jeremiah 29.11 HCSB

Here are some great blogs that I follow. Maybe they'll encourage and challenge you, too.

kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com
http://servinghischildreninuganda.blogspot.com/
http://theresurgence.com/
http://www.theveryworstmissionary.com/
http://medlinsinkenya.blogspot.com/
http://oatsvallteam.blogspot.com/
http://www.jenhatmaker.com/
http://discoveringthechristlife.blogspot.com/