Praise Planners are here: Who are they for?

   
I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all THY marvellous works.  Psalm 9:1

     I think I know what you’re thinking about this post. You’re probably thinking that this is a post to announce that Praise Planners are now for sale and a post to tell what kind of people will benefit from using these planners. Am I right? I thought so! Well, you are partially right too!  This post is announcing the launch of Praise Planners.  I am so excited to continue printing my own pages for my 2021 planner now that we have ink for our printer again (who knew that HP could run out of ink cartridges?).

     This post is a little bit about my planner, but it is not going to tell you what kind of person can benefit from using one of the planners.  My personal opinion is that almost anyone who can read and write can benefit from some sort of planning system. Planners help you keep track of what you need to do and can keep reminding you until you get it done. Since almost everyone can use that kind of help, we aren’t going to discuss that right now, although I do plan to post something along that line later on.

     What we are going to talk about is who we should use our planners for. Maybe a better way to put it would be, what is our motive for planning?

     If you’ve used planner embellishments from the store, then you’ve probably noticed what I’ve noticed about them. Most of them have lots of catchy sayings to help motivate you to get busy. They tell you how wonderful and capable you are and that you can accomplish whatever you want if you just try hard enough.

     While this sounds good and encouraging, it is actually flawed thinking and, more importantly, unbiblical. The truth is, we aren’t enough, and we cannot do it on our own. We are weak and helpless; God is strong and powerful. It is only when we surrender to God and ask for His strength that we can accomplish anything worth doing. Telling ourselves that we can do whatever we set our minds to if we try hard enough is not the answer. We must daily come before God, seeking His direction and asking for the strength to do His will.

I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. John 15:5

     When we seek God’s strength and bring our plans before Him, then He gives us the direction and strength that we need to know and do His will.  Otherwise, we will waste a lot of time spinning our wheels, maybe accomplishing things that seem important at the time, only to find out down the road that they really didn’t matter in light of eternity.

     If we do succeed, check mark everything on our lists, and accomplish our goals, then what? That’s when it’s easy to become proud and try to take the credit for what was accomplished.

     Are our planners to show how wonderful we are and how much we can accomplish (more than likely this would be a vague idea in our minds, not something we would want to admit, even to ourselves)? That’s not what our planners should be about. They should be used as tools to help us please the Lord, then as something to give Him glory for what He has helped us to do. We should use our planners to praise God, not ourselves.

     It is important for us to evaluate how we use our time and what are priorities are. This is not just about the planners. It’s about our motives, where we go for strength, and Who we are giving glory to. These are important parts of our daily walk with Jesus.

     Our planner can help us with these aspects if we fill it with Scripture and godly quotes. We can also pray for God’s leading as we plan our weeks and days. A third thing we can do is to thank Him each night when we are checking things off our lists. We need to remember where our strength comes from.

     So, this brings us around to Praise Planners again!  The motto for Praise Planners is: “We plan, to give God praise.”  In other words, we plan our lives and order them with the goal of bringing glory to God and not ourselves.  

     If you are interested in seeing what Praise Planners are available so far, just click on the picture below and the link will take you right to it.  And as the picture says, there are 4 free layouts that you can download and use however you want!

     Please leave me a comment, would you?  I would love to hear what kind of planner you would pick if you were told you could pick out any planner you wanted for free.  Would you want a to-the-point practical planner, one with all the frills, stickers, washi tape, everything, or something in between??  I would love to hear your answer!!

In Christ,

Bethany

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.