When I was a teenager, I had a general idea of what my life would be like as it unfolded. I would be a mechanical engineer, get a job somewhere near home when I graduated, make a lot of money, get married and live happily ever after. I was wrong on all counts. And, if my "plans" for the future turned out to be wrong, my parent's plans for me turned out to be even more ridiculous.

When I was 30, I thought I had my life figured out. It wasn't anything like I planned, but I thought I knew where I was going. Wrong again.

By the time I reached my 50's, you'd think I had my life pretty clearly figured out. I'd gone through a destructive marriage, an ugly divorce, raised two sons and was making plans for retiring back to where I grew up. I was dead wrong again.

I think we all like to feel that we are in control of our lives, because it's too frightening to think we aren't. But, just when you think you got this darned thing called life figured out, you're made a fool of again. I've been surprised more times than I can count..
Sometimes the surprise has been devastating, sometimes joyful beyond my wildest dreams.

Six years ago, I met the woman I would marry. She was absolutely nothing like the woman I dreamed of in my wildest imagination. She was far better than that. I never thought I would be married to such a beautiful woman. When I told my friend Joe that I was going out with Ruth, the woman I would marry, he made a classic comment. He said, "She's a beautiful woman, and she's good looking, too." Sums it up.

Life has a funny way of turning our plans upside down. Jeanie, here in Mudcat, said something once that not only made me laugh, it stuck with me. "Want to know how to make God laugh?, tell Him your plans for the future."

So, how has your life turned out, measuring it against your plans when you were a teenager?

Jerry