My Plan Versus God’s Direction by Jennifer Hallmark

/ Dora Hiers

Happy Tuesday, friends. I’m thrilled to welcome Jennifer Hallmark to Fiction Faith & Foodies today. Jennifer is one of those dear friends who always has an encouraging word and lights up the Internet with her smile. Pour another cup of coffee and prepare to be blessed. 🙂

Photo Credit: Pixabay
I’m a planner. Give me lists, charts, and organization and I leap for joy. Spontaneous is not in my vocabulary. I like to make my plan and see it through. Think Hannibal Smith on “The A Team” when he says, “I love it when a plan comes together.”
However, God’s Word doesn’t line up with my way of thinking.
A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps (Proverbs 16:9 NKJV).
I plan. God directs. Sometimes my plan lines up with His direction but sometimes they don’t. At this point, I must make a choice.
My plans or His direction. Often, I want to march when He wants to dance.
Freestyle.
In a crowd of people.
With me.
Not really my comfort zone but so rewarding when I let go of my plan to follow His lead. Early in my marriage, I was faced with a dilemma that I share in the book compilation, Not Alone: A Literary and Spiritual Companion for Those Confronted with Infertility and Miscarriage. I needed healing from a large cyst and a troubled pregnancy. I wanted both. I received a healing from the cyst. Then I miscarried.
Why?
I don’t know. I had a choice to make. Be angry at God for not following my plan or take his extended hand, be healed, and dance again. I chose to dance. Will you?
There are many plans in a man’s heart, nevertheless the Lord’s counsel—that will stand (Proverbs 19:21 NKJV).
Commit your actions to the Lord, and your plans will succeed (Proverbs 16:3 NLT).
Have you had an experience when your plans and God’s didn’t line up? What did you choose? What was the outcome?

Jennifer Hallmark is a writer by nature, artist at heart, and daughter of God by His grace. She’s published over 200 articles and interviews on the internet, short stories in several magazines, and been part of four book compilations: A Dozen Apologies, Sweet Freedom A La Mode, Unlikely Merger, and Not Alone: A Literary and Spiritual Companion for Those Confronted with Infertility and Miscarriage. She is currently shopping her contemporary southern fiction novel, When Wedding and Weather Collide.

http://www.jenniferhallmark.com
http://writingpromptsthoughtsideas.wordpress.com
https://www.facebook.com/jenniferhallmark
https://www.facebook.com/authorjenniferhallmark
https://twitter.com/JenHwrites
https://www.pinterest.com/jenlhallmark989/


Purchase Link

Not Alone: A Literary and Spiritual Companion for Those Confronted with Infertility and Miscarriage

Our society understands how terrible the loss of a child is when that child is out of the womb, but what about when a child dies before birth? Or what about the emptiness that comes when a very-much-wanted child is never even conceived?

These quiet, private losses are hard for those who have not experienced them to understand. And these losses leave those who have suffered them feeling alone in their grief.

Not Alone: A Literary and Spiritual Companion for Those Confronted with Infertility and Miscarriage is a resource both for those who have suffered through these experiences and for their friends and relatives, who want to understand what their loved ones are going through.

This collection contains true stories that are:

  • sensitive, and yet honest 
  • angry and raw, but not despairing 
  • unique, and yet relatable 


The contributors to this book are male and female, old and young, some who eventually had children and some who never did, and yet despite their differences, they share a common grief and a common faith.

No experience of miscarriage, infant loss, or infertility is like any other, yet by reading these painful and hope-filled stories, you’ll be comforted by knowing there are others who understand the journey you’re on, the loss you’ve suffered, and you will find that even though your loss is uniquely yours, you are not alone.

7 thoughts on “My Plan Versus God’s Direction by Jennifer Hallmark”

  1. I'm so sorry for your experience, Jennifer.

    My favorite verses are Isaiah 55:8-9 and Jeremiah 29:11. Some may considerate it simplistic thinking, but those verses tell me that I don't need to worry. He has that plan for me and He knows best.

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  2. I'm happy you chose to dance, Jennifer.
    By the way, what a great last name…it's my favorite movie channel. 🙂
    I'm a planner too, but many years ago, I learned to never question God's timing. He's got it all under control.

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  3. I'm a planner, too, and sometimes God just tosses all those plans out the front door. Over and over in my lifetime, He's proven that His plans are infinitely better than mine. Not always easy to dance, though. But He always brings us to a better place. So sorry you had to go through that, Jennifer. Love and hugs!

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  5. I do get a lot of comments on my last name, Jill. I would like to have a book someday made into a movie for Hallmark. Wouldn't that be awesome?

    I still catch myself questioning at times, but I've made progress. 🙂

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