“The heart of the man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.” ~Proverbs 16:9
Happy New Year! Welcome to 2024 with all of your projects, finished or unfinished. A popular question this time of year is, “What is your New Year’s resolution?” In other words, what are your plans for this upcoming year? No matter if you accomplished your goals from last year, or that UFO (unfinished object: a colloquial term for a quilt that has been sitting on the shelf waiting to be completed) went unfinished again, the plans for a New Year are on everyone’s mind. It is almost like a fresh start! A bigger question, and arguably a better one, is how are your plans fitting in with God’s plan? The Bible makes it clear that God has a plan. We are fortunate to read God’s plan since the beginning of time. From the creation of the Earth to the death of the Messiah, God’s plan continues to be accomplished through imperfect people. What does the Bible say about us making plans?
The Bible has a lot to say about the necessity and benefit of making plans. Psalms 20:4 says, ” May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.” Proverbs says, “The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty,” (Proverbs 21:5) and “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed” (Proverbs 15:22). On the other hand, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’ – yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” ~James 4:13-15. So are we supposed to plan or not? James goes on to say in verse 16-17 that boasting of what you will do is arrogant and evil, and if you know what is the right thing to do and fail to do it, it is a sin. I believe God wants us to plan, but He wants us to plan with His plan in mind.
As quilters, we understand the necessity of planning. A quilt with no plan has no direction. There is a possibility that it comes out as a masterpiece never seen before, but most quilts are a product of a pattern, and thus a plan. Even when we pick out fabric, we usually have a plan for each color. God doesn’t instruct us not to plan. In fact, there is a case to be made that it is a necessity; however, our plans that are not rooted in God’s plans are destined to fail. To the exiles of Israel, “for I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and hope.” The balance between planning and trusting God is difficult, but not impossible.
“Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.” ~Proverbs 19:21
But if I plan, how can the Holy Spirit move? What if my plan is not aligned with His will? How am I supposed to know God’s plan? These are just a few questions that I probably spend too much time dwelling on, and I’m sure I am not alone. First, we don’t need to understand God’s plan to trust God has a purpose. God works in mysterious ways. In practice, we can test our plans against scripture, and we can ask for advice from Godly people and pastors. The Holy Spirit will also convict us if we are following plans that are against God’s will. Sometimes, He may ask us to put aside our plans, so that we can learn to trust Him more. In all things, God can interrupt our plans with His purposes!
I have been practicing my free motion quilting on my new machine. The above two pictures are some of my practice. Hopefully, I feel comfortable this week to move on to an actual project. We never truly stop practicing though!
I wanted to impart a simple trick I learned. To the left is a picture of two batting pieces sewn together. If you are like me, you have a lot of extra batting pieces laying around. Simple solution to getting the right size you need is to zig zag stitch between the two batting pieces with a slight overlap. This allows you to use up scraps more efficiently even for slightly bigger projects! I would recommend trying to not overlay seams on top of the zig zag to avoid potential bulking that makes quilting more difficult.
No matter what your New Year’s resolution is, or if you made one to begin with, I encourage all of us to pray that our plans align with God’s, continue to read the scripture, and to surround ourselves with wise counsel to help us lead a more faithful 2024. Many blessings to you and happy quilting!
Quilt Bus 