Christian Living

A Beautiful Distraction

by Janice S Ramkissoon 
09/26/25
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"In their hearts humans plan their course,
    but the Lord establishes their steps."
Proverbs 16:9

A beautiful distraction indeed! I smiled as I wrote the title of this article and I am still smiling as I type :-). God is redeeming the times (Joel 2:25). I have a special book where I journal my thoughts regarding marriage. It began as a marriage book to continue a practice introduced to us at a Baptist Expression of Marriage Encounter [BEofME] weekend.

Unfortunately, like many other practices we’ve started in the marriage, it fell by the wayside. I wanted to see this gift we bought for our 24^th wedding anniversary, go to good use. Nevertheless, I was also a little disappointed that it wasn’t being used for the intended purpose. So recently, I decided to find better use for it than just being left on the shelf.

My beloved and I managed to utilise it for its intended purpose for one successful session/entry. I’ve used it mainly to write letters to my beloved and prayers to God about our marriage from things I’m grateful for to the fears that overwhelm me from time to time as I seek Him for courage.

I’m a writer. This is a book with many unused pages. What better use than to organize my thoughts regarding my marriage and allow it to accommodate my written pieces? So I got to work.

I spent a few hours this morning [16 September 2025] pouring out my heart to God. My journal time ended with the song that was sung at my baptism 40 years ago, ‘Take my life and let it be consecrated Lord, to Thee…’.

Was God bringing that back to my attention for a purpose? 

Oh yes!

It’s all about surrendering my will to His.

I got up from my seated position to get my song book and ended up in Proverbs 3 instead. 

I was distracted.

Imagine that!

But what a beautiful distraction it was!

Maybe I shouldn’t call it a distraction. Maybe it was re-direction. Proverbs 16:9 tells us that while we plan the course in our hearts, God establishes our steps. 

In the past, I would get a little annoyed with myself for allowing something to distract me from the thing I wanted to do. This time I was smiling, welcoming this much needed ‘distraction’ which I now understand was a re-direction. I was about to hear God speak, in answer to the prayer I had prayed in the past two hours.

My heavenly Father loves me. He heard my cry and answered me. I am so amazed. I am loved! ‘Yes, Jesus loves me’ and I have no doubt about it. Beautiful! Simply beautiful! 

I waited patiently for the Lord;
    he turned to me and heard my cry.

He lifted me out of the slimy pit,

    out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
    and gave me a firm place to stand.

He put a new song in my mouth,
    a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear the Lord
    and put their trust in him.

~ Psalm 40:1-3 ~