Personal Development

I need to be honest with you about something.

For a long time, I hated Jeremiah 29:11. Not the verse itself — the way it got quoted at me. “For I know the plans I have for you…” said cheerfully, on a coffee mug, right when my actual plans were falling apart in real time.

It felt like a Christian pat on the head. Like someone handing you a Bible verse instead of sitting with you in the mess.

But here’s what I’ve learned after living a lot more life since I first heard that verse: it wasn’t written for a mug. It was written to people who had lost everything.

The Context Nobody Tells You

Jeremiah 29:11 was written to the Israelites in exile — in Babylon, ripped away from home, watching everything familiar get taken apart. God wasn’t handing them a verse to feel good about. He was speaking to people in the middle of the worst season of their lives, telling them He hadn’t lost track of them.

That changes everything for me. Because if that promise held in exile, it holds when your business isn’t growing the way you hoped. It holds when the marriage is hard. It holds when you’re staring at your finances and the math isn’t mathing. It holds when you’re 52 and still figuring some of this out, and that’s okay too.

What Trusting the Plan Actually Looks Like

I’m not going to tell you trusting God’s plan means feeling peaceful all the time. Some days it looks like gritted teeth. Some days it looks like doing the next right thing without any confirmation that it’s working.

Here’s what I’ve found actually helps:

• Stop measuring the plan by your timeline. God’s “prosper and not harm” was a promise about seventy years of exile before restoration. Seventy years. If your breakthrough hasn’t come in seventy days, you are not off the plan — you might just be in the part of the story that isn’t finished yet.
• Let the waiting build something instead of just passing time. The exile wasn’t wasted years for Israel. They built houses, planted gardens, had families. Whatever season you’re in right now — don’t just survive it. Plant something in it.
• Trade “why is this happening” for “what do I do with this.” One is a question with no answer. The other is a question you can actually act on today.

A Small, Honest Confession

I’ve built a lot in the last year — courses, workbooks, a whole content calendar most weeks. Some of it has taken off. Some of it hasn’t moved at all, and I won’t pretend that doesn’t sting a little. But I keep coming back to this verse, not as decoration, but as an actual anchor. Not because it guarantees the outcome I want on my timeline — but because it tells me the outcome isn’t the only thing being worked on. I am too.

If you’re in a season where the plan doesn’t look like anything you’d have picked — you’re not off track. You might just be in Babylon for a minute. Plant the garden anyway.

If you need something to hold onto while you wait on the plan, come sit with me over at Momma J’s Cozy Cottage — handmade pieces made slow, on purpose, for exactly this kind of season.