Reflection Options  

Journal  (Reflect on one or more of these questions)

• In what areas of your life are you struggling to know God’s plan for you? In what areas is your struggle more about following His will (vs. your own)?  How do you know the difference?

• How do you currently perceive God’s movement in your life? How does this perception influence the way you think about your plans vs. God’s plans?

Quote Interaction (Interact by agreeing, disagreeing or otherwise engaging with the quote/quotes)

• The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet. (Frederick Buechner)

• We must cease striving and trust God to provide what He thinks is best and in whatever time He chooses to make it available. But this kind of trusting doesn't come naturally. It's a spiritual crisis of the will in which we must choose to exercise faith.  (Charles R. Swindoll)

• . . . it is presumptuous in me to wish to choose my path, because I cannot tell which path is best for me. I must leave it to the Lord, Who knows me, to lead me by the path which is best for me, so that in all things His will may be done.  (Teresa of Ávila, Interior Castle)

Reading & Reflection from the book, Shaping The Journey of Emerging Adults:

• Read "Is This A Universal Landscape?" (pp. 36-39, especially p. 38). What struggles have you experienced with either “constructing an ideal life” or “dreaming of an unattainable ideal” as described on this page? How does that affect your ability to trust God with your future?

• Read the story of Molly and Jerry (p. 164). Put yourself in either Molly's or Jerry’s place.  Analyze the story from a “my plans” “God’s plans” perspective.  Think about both their past and their future.  

• MENTOR: Look at the section “Pacing” (pp. 82-83).  Use the 3 questions on page 83--first ask yourself those questions, then imagine what the young adult you are meeting with would answer.  Check out your understanding by asking them the next time you meet.