I've made plans on who I was going to possibly marry. God laughed. I've made plans for what I was going to major in. God laughed. (And I changed my major 10 minutes into orientation.) I've made plans where I was going to live and what school I was going to go to. God laughed. I've made plans on where I was going on vacation. God laughed. I've made plans on who I was going to be friends with and let in my life, yeah God laughed at that too.

I've made a lot of plans. I've had a lot of anger at God because he didn't let me have my way. That in itself caused me to try and do this life on my own, not worrying about God or what he had planned, which was a perfectly paved road to my own self-destruct.

Life changed when I heard God laughing at all these plans I was making on my own and I wondered why. It changed when I started to go to him in prayer with my plans and God stopped laughing and he spoke and told me three things. He told me these things all at different times but at the time I needed to hear them. These three things weren't easy to hear and made me wanna scream at God and say "Dude, that's not going to work. There's no way." But God laughed once again.

1. "Stop telling me what you are going to do, start asking me if that's what I want for you." — God

When I heard God say this to me I felt like I heard my mom or dad saying "Stop telling me where your gonna go. Try asking." These statements are slightly different but very similar. My mom and dad were not happy when I would say stuff like "I'm going to so and so's house." I feel like God isn't happy when I tell him my plans instead of asking him what he thinks first. The only difference between God and my parents is my parents made me ask for permission. My parents weren't giving me an opinion or advice such as "Maybe you shouldn't go." they were giving me an answer.

But my Heavenly Father does parenting a little differently. He doesn't force me to ask for permission but he wants me too. He doesn't ever tell me no when I'm passionate about doing things my way. He lets me do it and learn from it which ultimately ends in me asking for him to have his way. All he wants for me to do consistently is go to him before I make plans and get his advice on it. In more general terms, pray about it.

Praying about something you have planned. can turn it into Gods plan very quickly. Praying and asking God for something can result in him squeezing it in his plan for you even if he already knows it is temporary he uses it to teach you something.

Prayer is a scary thing. The reason being is because when we pray for something we want or need he usually gives it to us or gives us ways to grow in that area of our lives. I once prayed for patience. Never again. That week God stuck me at so many long red lights when I was in a rush to get somewhere. God put me in so many positions that I was forced to be patient in.

I learned that seeking him first encompasses a lot of things. Mainly, when you seek him first you have to come to terms with that his ways are higher than your ways. You surrender your life fully to him and give him the authority to make the plans and you just go with the flow. As hard as that may be he reminds us that letting go, stepping down and promoting God as the person in charge can be rewarding. He tells us that just because he is God doesn't mean the answer is always going to be "No." but it means that he answers things in three ways.

1. "Yes."

2. "Not right now."

3."I have something better for you."

None of these responses just flat out say "No." But they imply that the answer is no but there is still hope!

Keep praying. Whatever you are praying for will come true, it may not be in the exact package you wanted but it will be what God thinks is best for you.

"I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you've received it, it will be yours." - Mark 11:24

2. "My plan for your life isn't a roadmap for you to read. It is a scroll that is to be unrolled a little at a time." — God

Remember when I said to never pray for patience? Well, when you are chasing after Gods plan for your life and when you let him take the reigns of your life you are almost forced to pray for patience. The reason being is because we as people want to know everything now and we demand that from God. But, that is not how God works. He doesn't always allow us to see the big picture of where his plan is going to take us. His plan and his ways for us are to be revealed a little at a time in HIS PERFECT TIME. Waiting for God to reveal the next step in his plan in our lives takes patience and perseverance.

God started to teach me this over the course of the summer. I was in a position where I was needing to make tons of plans for the fall that was quickly approaching. Where I was going to go to school. Where I was going to live. Where I was going to work. And so much more. I made so many plans on my own, all of which ended up falling through and ended in me hitting a dead end and not knowing where to go next. Slowly, God revealed opportunities one by one that I knew were going to work out and be fulfilled. But in the process of all that I was so excited that things were starting to come together that I begged God to let me see the big picture of what he was doing.

Following God and his plans, and his ways is like doing a 500 piece puzzle without being allowed to see or reference the picture on the box. One by one you start to find where the pieces go because God tells you. But he also says you aren't allowed to see the big picture. I will give you pieces one at a time that will fit perfectly with the previous piece and you will see the big picture when I am out of pieces. Talk about needing patience? You try doing a puzzle that has 500 pieces and not being able to look at the picture once. In reality, you don't even know what the puzzle is.

There is a scripture I have heard all the time but never fully allowed it to be something I referenced or leaned on. I always saw this scripture as a scripture that was very clichè, overused, and one that people referenced all the time when they hit roadblocks in their life. This scripture is in red letters in the bible which means that Jesus spoke this, making it all the more powerful. He spoke this over his disciples when they too were confused and wanting to see the big picture of what he had planned.

"Jesus replied, "You don't understand now what I am doing, but someday you will." - John 13:7

These words hold so much power. These words confirmed that what God told me about his plan not being a roadmap for me to read but a scroll to be unrolled a little at a time was true. These words gave me hope and peace that even if I was confused while I tried to put the 500 piece puzzle together because I couldn't see the picture on the box, that eventually when the puzzle was finished I would be able to see what he was doing and why.

3. "Nothing can stop my plan for your life. Not the enemy. Not your family and friends. And definitely not you!" — God

It's really a blessing when the Lord speaks to us through scripture. But it is an even bigger blessing when he tells us something and we had no idea that it was in scripture in the first place. This to me is a fascinating way that God proves himself and his words true. This is a way that the Lord confirms what he said to me! About a month after I heard God tell me this I was starting to study the book of Isaiah. I was reading it every night and writing down key things that stuck out to me. I referenced what God had previously said to me and wondered where in the bible it said something similar. I started to pray that God would confirm that for me. That he would show me that it was him talking to me. That is when I stumbled upon a scripture, in Isaiah that read:

"The LORD of Heaven's Armies has spoken--who can change his plans? When his hand is raised, who can stop him?" - Isaiah 14:27

This was God saying to me in scripture form. "What I told you is indeed true. Nothing Can stop my plan for your life. Not even you."

I heard God say this to me when I was in prayer one evening. I was sitting and my only prayer was "God I am going to sit here and let you talk this time. I don't know where you are taking me. I don't know what good is going to come out of this. So it is your turn to talk." God knew my heart and read my mind that night when I was spending time with him. He knew that if I didn't hear something from him that night that I was just going to assume that he was just as clueless as I was and that I was going to try and figure it out on my own. He knew that I felt like every time a plan that I thought was his plan was going to work out it didn't.

That's why he reassured me that his plans do not fail. No matter what forces try to come against it, including me, his plans will always find a way to be fulfilled. He also made sure that I knew that if it failed that it probably was not in his plan, to begin with. Well... maybe it was in his plan for my life but wasn't part of the things he has permanently planned for me

But even within that, he made sure that I rest assured that:

When he designed the plan for my life it wasn't dependent on me being perfect. My mistakes were not a surprise to him and that he knew that they were going to happen and he was going to use them in his plan in some way.

No matter how many lies I believed that the enemy told me. No matter how many times I messed up. No matter how many times I ignored his plan for my life and threw away the many blessings he put in my life. He still had a plan. He still had a way. And when he designed the plan for my life he worked around all the mistakes I was going to make. He designed it in a way that they would teach me something. And most importantly he reminded me that no matter how far away I felt from him and his plan that he would still have his way in my life if I allowed him too.

I am sure all of you reading this have heard Jeremiah 29:11 at some point in your life. You know, the scripture that says

"I know the plans for you declares The Lord. Plans to give you hope and a future."

Yeah, that one. The scripture that most girls put in their bio on social media. The one that we hear all the time and we never let it engrave itself in our hearts because it is so common we know we will hear it again. But what we don't know is that if we pick this scripture apart piece by piece it holds so much power and gives God the authority.

"I KNOW the plans I HAVE for YOU." - He knows the plans he has for you. You won't know. Your mom and dad won't know. Your boyfriend or girlfriend won't know. Only he knows!

"DECLARES THE LORD." - Something about that word "Declare" that just makes you know that God is in control. He didn't whisper. He didn't stutter. He DECLARED it!

"To give YOU a HOPE and a FUTURE." — This part of the scripture in itself is full of promise. Not just any promise. God's promise. He is promising us that his plans are good. He will never set us up for failure. He says this so that we trust him and his plans for us.

The last scripture is also another common one. It is one I see everywhere. I see it on devotional books. I see it in wall art. I see it used as captions on girls candid pictures on Instagram. But this scripture picked apart holds power too. It is demanding that we should laugh and not worry about our future because that is something that he is in charge of.

"She laughs without fear of the future." - Proverbs 31:25

Let's pick this apart.

"SHE LAUGHS" - Wow, isn't this weird? Weren't we just noticing that God laughs at our plans that we make for our future? But now we are laughing. Who's laughing now God? Wait, why are we laughing? Is that a sin or disrespectful to God?

"WITHOUT FEAR" - OK, now it is starting to make more sense. We are laughing because we don't have any fear or anxiety. We are laughing because we are rejoicing! But without fear of what? What are we so scared of? God?

"OF THE FUTURE" - So we are laughing without fear of our future? But why? There is so much to plan! God can't just expect us to go in blindsided.

The reality of it is we need to learn to laugh without fear of our future like this proverb says. Why? well, simply because The Lord tells us not to worry about anything that the future holds because he has a plan for us. We should laugh without fear of the future instead of worrying and stressing ourselves out trying to plan everything because God laughs at our plans anyways.

His plans for your life are going to be fulfilled and trust me they are big plans.

His ways of doing things are far better than our ways.

His ways and his plans for us might not look like anything we have ever planned on our own. But, they will be far better than anything we could have ever dared to dream ourselves.

So laugh so loud at your future.

Worry no more.

Stress no more.

Stop planning and start praying.

Gods got this. Gods got you.