My wife is fond of quoting the adage, “Everyman has a plan that will not work!” Occasionally, I protest, “Every woman also,” but my heart is not in the protest. I do observe that my plans often do not work out at all the way I planned. Recently, I have been doing a lot more cooking of the evening meals. I made out a plan for a week of meals including what supplies were needed to make those meals. The plan did not even make it through the first day before everything had to be changed. This was frustrating at first, but on reflection, I realize that I could just adjust a few things and change days and part of the plan could still work. Plans rarely work as originally conceived, but even a failed plan can often still be beneficial. Often at least part of the plan can still be useful. A plan does not have to be perfect to be beneficial. This does not please the perfectionist in all of us who want it all to work out perfectly. There is the danger that our quest for the best may miss out on the good. What is certain is that no plan makes it difficult to evaluate success or failure. Most often it leads to failure by neglect. So I have decided to keep on planning. Some plans may work out better than expected and at least I have the reassurance that I am making the effort to do things well and in a timely manner. I can think of many things in the Bible to indicate that God has a plan and plans. God even at times seems to have encouraged preplanning by his people. The real challenge is to match my plans to God’s plans rather than trying to make God’s plans fit in with mine.