I was reading through Matthew 2 this morning about the birth of Jesus and it was amazing to see how God had everything mapped out! The Magi, the star in the east, the prophecies, the dreams and the moves! Does God have a plan for your life? The answer to the question is pretty obvious – most of us believe that God does in fact have a plan for our lives. But the “yes” answer is the easy part. What kind of plan? How much of a plan? Do I get a choice in the plan? These are all very important questions and help us to realize that while God has a plan for our lives, we still have responsibility!
Are you taking your responsibility seriously? Are you doing your part to discover and live in the blessing of God’s plan? It is one thing to know that God has a plan for our lives. It is another thing altogether to believe that God has a plan for our lives. To know and believe means that you are going to live life differently. To know and believe means that you want to make sure that you are doing your part to stay in step with God’s plan. To know and believe means that you will live life on purpose and for a purpose!
God does have a plan for your life and it is an amazing and beautiful thing! Take some time today to think about His plan and how you can walk in step with it! And then take your thinking one step forward by doing your part – whatever your part is that God has shown you!
Michael Joe Harvell 
What a wonderful picture….. as a kid I also grew up near the “RR Tracks.” As a matter of fact at one time lived by “the “P&N” and “Southern” tracks. I see things in the picture that most folk will never see… my first experience was walking the tracks to Taylors Schools for my first grade classes. Now you must understand that back in “the dark ages” people living by RR tracks kept track of time by listening for the passing of trains thru the community….. yes, even we children knew.. and in my walk to and from school we walked by the tracks..and my favorite was walking on the rail it’s self and attempting not to fall.. and every now and then I would place my ear near the track to listen for trains coming. What a thrill it was when a train came through and the engineer would blow the whistle and wave to us. Really, we kids had been taught by our parents and grands and neighbors about dangers that we faced and we were in fact a community that knew neighbors for miles around… and the chance was that no matter in what community you were, there was kin. God was very real and we knew that our parents had a good communicating system for they knew about any trouble we got into before we got home. Isn’t God good. I love the picture of that sweet girl of yours, and it brings into my memory of that beautiful girl shortly after birth being held by my dear brother who loved her and every child at Northwood… I think that it can be said he never met a child or adult that he did not love. All of this to say…”Keep your hand upon the throttel and your eye upon the rail.”
Thanks so much for the memories and the sweet words!