He has pre-prepared

Since 1947 Girl Scouts have had the motto “Be prepared.” I should know. I was a girl scout from Brownie to Cadet. It was drilled into us. We came to meetings with a plan already in motion. We came with all of the essentials we would need for the task at hand.

And that suited my personality quite well. I’m not a winger. I never “wing it.” I'm a planner. I like being prepared.

Later when I worked for a children’s ministry at my church, my children’s minister told us, “When working with children consider all the things that can go wrong and be prepared for these things to happen.” Did he know kids or what?

When I started teaching my principal had a “no surprises” policy. I liked that and found it easy to submit to that kind of leadership.

I like being ready for every situation when it comes to life and/or teaching kids. And I can tell you, there have been some situations! OK, I didn’t always get it right. I've even used advice from Garfield the unflappable cartoon cat, “If you can't convince them, confuse them.” I'm prepared to confuse at a moment’s notice. It’s called, “distract, repair, and regain attention.”

There’s nothing wrong with being prepared. This word even comes with a “pre” in front which means ahead of time. I like to be ready ahead of time. But I have learned that no matter how prepared you think you are something is going to come out of the blue and knock you sideways and shock you into realizing you're not as prepared as you thought you were.

Thankfully during those post-preparation moments when things are falling apart and you're just mopping up mess and trying to survive it God has an answer.  

For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10

Nothing is a surprise to Him. He has pre-prepared in advance (I know, I've used a little redundancy. But it’s just to get the point across) everything that has happened and is going to happen to us. The creator has and is creating a masterpiece in us. All the things that happen, planned or unplanned, are part of His predetermined plan. It will be for His benefit, His kingdom’s benefit, and our benefit.  He has taken the “Be prepared” motto to a whole new level. He has made everything ready beforehand for His specific purpose. And it will be created into a good work.

This suits my personality immensely. There is a lot of peace of heart and mind in knowing it’s all for a planned purpose and has a reason beyond my understanding and planning. I plan and when and if it falls apart He planned and is working the unfailing plan.

I prepare.

God has pre-prepared.

It will end up as a good work.

As Hannibal says on the A-Team, “I love it when a plan comes together.”