Article May 1, 1989 Issue

Not exactly what you had in mind?

Don't we sometimes make our plans too narrow, or too rigid, to respond to the abundant good that is God's plan for us?

Amy Ingram Bergh

As we passed by a large moving van in front of someone's house one day, I explained to my young children, Allison and Nick, that a truck like that one would come to our house the following week to move all of our belongings to our new home.

Moving day came and the movers arrived! Nick ran out of the house to meet the truck and stopped short. There sat a small pick-up truck loaded with packing materials. Nick put his hands on his hips, tapped his foot impatiently, rolled his eyes, and exclaimed to the unsuspecting moving man, "That's not exactly what I had in mind!"

Haven't we all at some time or other planned something to the point where we can visualize every detail—including the exact outcome? In a business, for example, one might design a marketing plan to gear the company for success. The plan might lay out several options for the company's direction, what steps each option would take, and what the result would be in each case.

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