You're in Good Hands
by Ray Geide

        When my two oldest children (who are now off to college) were in High School, our household experienced one of those domestic catastrophes, which happen way too often with teenagers.
        Anthony, the oldest and the one who drove, liked to go to school thirty minutes early so that he could have time to talk with his friends. Jenny preferred to remain in bed until five minutes before school started. We settled on a compromise, they would leave for school at twenty minutes till. Anthony got up, used the bathroom, and then knocked on Jenny's door telling her to get up. This worked fine for a few months.
        But then Jenny stopped getting up immediately. So Anthony would knock a few minutes later. Each day it took more and more knocks. Suspecting Jenny was hatching her own scheme to force her brother into a later departure time, I came up with my own plan to squelch the rebellion.
        "You only need to knock on Jenny's door once," I instructed my son. "I will take care of the rest."
        The next morning came and Jenny did not get up. I was sitting silently in the family room ready to put my plan into action. Soon, Anthony knocked on Jenny's door again, ... and again. My wife, who had heard me tell Anthony to only knock once, reminded Anthony that he didn't have to knock again.
        "But she won't get up," Anthony whined. My wife knocked on Jenny's door imploring her to get up. Over the next fifteen minutes both my wife and Anthony knocked on Jenny's door. Finally, five minutes before they were to leave, as I had previously planned, I knocked on Jenny's door and made sure that she got up.
        Soon Anthony was standing at her closed door yelling, "Hurry up. If you are not ready, I am leaving without you." Her bedroom door remained closed.
        I told Anthony to leave her alone.
        "But I have to leave soon and she is not ready," he cried bursting into tears. Then I divulged to him that I had planned the whole morning but several times he had ruined my plan by not obeying what I had told him. If he had trusted me, his morning would have been calm and stress-free. I went on to explain to him how much smarter and experienced I was parenting than him (somehow, they never accept that part).
        "But she would not..." off he went with another excuse.
        "If you had trusted me, I would have taken care of it," I restated my point and ended the conversation.
        At nineteen minutes till, according to my predetermined plan, I went into Jenny's room and walked her out to the car telling her that this would not happen again. That evening we sat down together and hashed out the way things would be. Jenny would get one knock at seven thirty and they would leave at twenty till. That is the way it worked the rest of the school year.
        Are you not the same way with God? He is much smarter, more experienced, and stronger than you. Before the world was created, He came up with a plan. Hundreds of times in the Bible He tells you to trust Him and His plan (every time you see the words, "believe" and "faith", they are talking about trusting Him). Yet, you worry, complain, and take things into your own hands. All the while God sits there waiting for you to trust His plan, to climb into His hands.
        When will you realize that you are in good hands with God?
        "Casting all your care on Him; for He cares for you" (1 Peter 5:7).