While I slept this morning, my automatic coffee maker made coffee for me.\u00a0 My automatic bread machine made cranberry bread for me.\u00a0 When my alarm automatically went off at the right time, I got up to enjoy the automatically made coffee along with the automatically made bread, while reading an automatic electronically delivered devotion.<\/p>\n
It may have seemed automatic this morning, but that’s only because of all the preparation the night before.\u00a0 If one were to look only at the events of the morning, it would be easy to assume life was easy.\u00a0 Just get up, pour yourself some coffee, and eat the hot, ready-for-you breakfast.\u00a0 But it’s not that simple.\u00a0 The preparation the night before took effort.<\/p>\n
That’s the hard part for me.\u00a0 Knowing how and when to prepare, and putting forth the effort to do something with hope and confidence of a future benefit.\u00a0 Any fool can pick a tomato.\u00a0 It takes someone with a lot more foresight and action to plant the tomato plant three months earlier.<\/p>\n
It might be nice to be the guy who is always prepared, but I am not that guy.\u00a0 Sometimes I miss the chance.\u00a0 Sometimes I don’t see what’s coming.\u00a0 Sometimes, when I am very tired or very busy, I don’t do what needs to be done to be prepared for tomorrow.\u00a0 It is in those times especially that I realize I am not in control.\u00a0 I can’t prepare for everything.\u00a0 Even if I had the energy and willpower, I don’t have the foresight.\u00a0 But there is One who does.<\/p>\n
Perhaps at times I face situations where I am unprepared so that I will learn to rely more on the One who is always prepared.\u00a0 He knows the future and He is willing to direct my path if I will listen and follow.\u00a0 He is never surprised; always prepared for what is ahead.\u00a0 He is in fact, preparing a place for me.\u00a0 I am sure that place is in Heaven.\u00a0 But I think there’s a good chance He’s preparing some places for me on Earth too.\u00a0 Places I will be next year, or next month, next week, tomorrow . . . or this afternoon.<\/p>\n
I will try my best to be prepared.\u00a0 To use wisdom and good judgement, paired with courage and willpower to act in preparation for the future.\u00a0 But if on occasion I should happen to arrive at a place in life for which I feel totally unprepared, I pray that God will give me comfort, and remind me of His presence.\u00a0 I pray that He will remind me that long before I arrived, He was already there, preparing for me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
While I slept this morning, my automatic coffee maker made coffee for me.\u00a0 My automatic bread machine made cranberry bread for me.\u00a0 When my alarm automatically went off at the right time, I got up to enjoy the automatically made coffee along with the automatically made bread, while reading an automatic electronically delivered devotion. It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-misc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1778"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1782,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1778\/revisions\/1782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}