Good Luck!

We may throw the dice, but the LORD determines how they fall.

PROVERBS 16:33

DO YOU EVER WISH for good luck? What do you think good luck is? When you get lucky and find money on the ground? Or when you luck out and don’t have to take a test? Or when your sister gives you her phone because she got a new one?

We spend time wishing for good luck—hoping that great things will happen or that we’ll get an unexpected boost. But as it says in Proverbs, God determines how things fall in our lives. That may mean we have a stretch of “bad luck” when life kind of kicks us around. Maybe you fall and break a bone or your house floods or your bike gets stolen. These are crummy things, and God doesn’t necessarily cause them, but he may allow them to happen. It’s the same with “good luck.”

God lets things into our lives that may seem like surprising or sudden things—good or bad—but they all have a role in the larger plan he has for our lives. And that’s a plan we often can’t see. What we can do is look for the lesson or teaching in what does happen. If your sister gives you her phone, what could you learn from that? To give to others when you have too much? So rather than waiting and hoping for “good luck” to strike, just remember: there are lessons for us in everyday life if we look, no matter what our luck is.

DO

At the bottom of this page, draw a small four-leaf clover. Then write one word in each leaf that represents something unexpectedly good in your life, such as “Dad” for the extra high-five he gave you before your game. Or maybe “God” for the gifts he gives you every day.

PRAY

Dear God,

Thank you for letting good things happen to me every day. Help me remember that I can learn from everything that happens in my life—good or bad. Amen.

READ

2 Corinthians 1:20; James 1:17