I'm glad you could join us for today's encouragement from our daily bread.

Today's reading is titled Imperfect Plans, and it was written by Jennifer Benson Schultt.

I was exploring a library on the bottom floor of a new community center when an overhead crash

suddenly shook the room. A few minutes later, it happened again, and then again. An agitated librarian

finally explained that a weightlifting area was positioned directly above the library, and the

noise occurred every time someone dropped a

weight. Architects and designers had carefully planned many aspects of the state-of-the-art facility,

yet someone had forgotten to locate the library away from all the action. In life as well,

our plans are often flawed.

We overlook important considerations.

Our plans don't always account for accidents or surprises.

Although planning helps us avoid financial shortfalls, time crunches, and health issues, even the most thorough strategies can't eliminate all problems

from our lives. We live in a post-eaten world. With God's help, we can find the balance

between prudently considering the future and responding to difficulties. God often has a purpose for the trouble he allows in our lives.

He may use it to develop patience in us, to increase our faith, or simply to bring us closer to

him. The Bible reminds us in Proverbs 19. Many are the plans in a person's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails.

As we submit our goals and hopes for the future to Jesus,

he'll show us what he wants to accomplish in us and through us.

Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Proverbs 19, verses 20 through 23.

Listen to advice and accept discipline, and at the end you will be counted among the wise.

Many are the plans in a person's heart,

but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails.

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