My Plan, His Plan . . . Listen

By Michelle Duncanson

There are many things that hinder us from accomplishing our dreams. However, the one that we all have in common is ourselves. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to just start. For instance, if your vision is to run a marathon and you ignore the alarm in the morning and never begin to run to train your body and develop the habit, you will never be able to succeed.

There is one person who can help you let go of yourself, your past, and give you the strength and courage to move ahead and reach for the finish line—God. Let go of yourself and decide to listen. Listen to the little voice that tugs at your heart or echoes in your head as you do simple everyday tasks. A true change to self can only be achieved by a commitment to listen to his plan for your life. The dreams and vision that you have will grow, and you will begin your journey—or your dreams will take a new twist in accordance with his plan. My Plan, His Plan . . . Listen.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Dec 14, 2018
• ISBN: 9781532064562

Michelle Duncanson

Michelle Duncanson is a wife, mother, grandmother (Nana), and small-business women entrepreneur. She works daily to listen to His voice, instead of her own! She tries to make others feel more beautiful and confident about themselves and wants to leave a legacy for her family.

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MY PLAN,

HIS PLAN …

LISTEN

Michelle Duncanson

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MY PLAN, HIS PLAN … LISTEN

Copyright © 2019 Michelle Duncanson.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-5320-6455-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-6456-2 (e)

iUniverse rev. date:   12/07/2018

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1   Hustle and Bustle

Chapter 2   Caution Wet Road

Warning One

Warning Two… Fall One

Fall Two… Warnings Lost

Chapter 3   Everything Happens for a Reason

Chapter 4   Greatest Fear… Not Being Able to Walk

Chapter 5   Jeremiah 29:11

Chapter 6   He Dusts Us Off When We Fall

Be Still and Know that I am God

God’s Will… His Plan

Chapter 7   Me Time

Chapter 8   Answered Prayers

Chapter 9   Saint Jude Hero… His Plan

Chapter 10   His Plan… My Plan

Conclusion… His Primary Will

References/Citations

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book is in honor of my family and in memory of my uncle, Johnny Newman, whose journey on this earth ended shortly after I completed the Saint Jude Marathon that is discussed in this book. He has gone on to be with our other loved ones in Heaven.

I want to thank my daughter, Nikki, who served as my first editor and encouraged me to have this published, and countless others, who inspired me on my journey. They are too many to mention.

However, I do want to specifically thank my husband, Peter, who is always by my side, as he was a very large part of this story and allowed me to tell my story and his story. He supported me during this difficult stage of my life.

INTRODUCTION

My Plan

There are many things that hinder us from accomplishing our dreams. However, the one that we all have in common is ourselves. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is just start. For instance, if your vision is to run a marathon and you ignore the alarm in the morning and never begin to run, to train your body and develop the habit, you will never be able to succeed.

There is one person who can help you let go of yourself, your past, and give you the strength and courage to move ahead and reach for the finish line - God. Let go of yourself and decide to listen. Listen to the little voice that tugs at your heart or echoes in your head as you do simple everyday tasks. A true change to self can only be achieved by a commitment to listen to his plan for your life. The dreams and vision that you have will grow, and you will begin your journey - or your dreams will take a new twist in accordance with his plan. My Plan, His Plan… Listen.

I began the journey of my newest plan on July 2, 2010 as I sat at Kia Kima Boy Scout camp (KKSR) in Hardy, Arkansas. I wrote the first paragraph above. As I did my heart jumped, and I knew that I really wanted to do this. I wanted to run the Saint Jude Half-Marathon, not ready for the marathon, yet. I registered on August 31st after spending much of my summer sweating the mornings away before a shower and off to work. I was dedicated to my plan and worked to fit my routine in when traveling for work and pleasure.

I was so committed to completing my training and doing the marathon that several times over the summer months when Pastor Lane would talk about What is your God?, I would feel a twinge of guilt that I was spending more time with my feet on the pavement than my eyes upon the word of God. I did use my running time to thank God for the beauty of the world he created and prayed many days as I ran, but I felt that wasn’t an excuse for not spending time reading about Him.

This was the message that I sent to my friends and family about the half-marathon on September 1st. My husband forwarded to his friends as well. This was good for the cause as he had several friends who supported my efforts. There was one special friend, Barry, who had lost his daughter to cancer.

Hello Friends & Family,

I have decided to participate in my next endurance event as a St. Jude Hero. As I watched Robert do this race in 2007, I never thought I would be able to complete this event myself, but after a year of running, I am ready! I was very proud of him as he ran it in remembrance of his brother, Stephen. I am running this half-marathon for my family and all of those that are fighting the battle of childhood cancer today.

My fundraising efforts will directly support the work of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital to find cures and save the lives of children fighting cancer and other deadly diseases, and I am asking for your help!

CHAPTER 1

Hustle and Bustle

My family summer trip was to Michigan where I took my mother and daughter to Mackinac Island to visit the Grand Hotel as neither of them had been there, and I wanted so much to go into the Grand Hotel and see the beauty that was inside as I did not get to on my first trip. The gardens outside were exquisite and very refreshing as you breathed in the ocean air and smelled the scents of the flowers all around you. The island was magnificent and a hit with my family. We spent the day here and drove to Frankenmuth for dinner at Zhenders. The family was not as impressed with this. Oh well, win some, lose some. After spending the next two days visiting Grammy, my husband’s mother, and picking blue berries, we headed to Detroit to spend one last night with family. We walked to dinner. This is what would be nice about living near a