Planning to work or working a plan?

I love my granddaughter, Gracie, truly I do. She’s bright, confident, articulate, and inquisitive. And that’s just a few of the reasons I knew I better have a plan before we began working on her quilt.

It’s not that I wasn’t already a planner and list-maker, but this plan was a little outside of my comfort zone. This project may be about bonding, but I’d also like Gracie to learn a little something. That means making a plan she understands.

Do you see this grid paper? When I found four sheets in my leftover school supplies, I actually praised God out loud. Before I got started I had to figure out ratios and scale, you know math stuff. The grid at least gave me a place to begin.

Dear Reader, there’s a reason I avoid teaching math above the fifth grade level like a crowded movie on a holiday weekend. I hadn’t even begun drawing the pattern for Gracie and me to use and I was already wondering what I’d gotten myself into.

I know I spent a lot more time drawing the plan for Gracie’s quilt than Tom, the former draftsman, would have. But that’s okay, because when Gracie sat next to me at the sewing machine it only took a minute for her to figure it out.

Spending nearly thirty years in education means having made reams of lesson plans. But you know what, Dear Reader? I’m not sure if I ever created any that gave me as much satisfaction as working a plan with Gracie.

​Huh! I wonder if that’s how the Lord feels when we surrender our will to fulfilling His.