May 29, 2018. It is a little after 8pm and my day is finally winding down. It actually turned out better than I anticipated.
Before I talk about my day, I want to mention something that crossed my mind this morning. In yesterday’s post I wrote about the song “Make You Miss Me” by Sam Hunt. I mentioned that Adam was not easy to leave when he was alive (a potential break-up), and he certainly was not easy to leave when he died. It crossed my mind this morning that God did not allow me to leave Adam…..I believe that God knows all the days of our lives even before we are born; therefore, I believe that God knew what would happen to Adam. I believe that He allowed our paths to cross so that Adam could give someone his total commitment and love before he left this earth, and so that I could help Adam in his spiritual walk as well as experience the amazing depth of his love. Perhaps God did not allow me to leave Adam because He (God) wanted me by his side until the very end of his life, which I was. I consider than an honor.
Today was the next to the last day of school, and due to end-of-year activities we are not on our normal schedule. This morning our uad rotated our students through each of us teachers; we did that up until lunch time. I had no clue what I was going to do with students when they came to me, but I got it figured out and it worked out well. I ended up taking them to our 5th Grade Computer Lab – thank God it was available! Some students needed to complete a diagnostic math test; other students worked on lessons on IXL, an online math program that we use. If students completed two lessons they were allowed to go onto a math website of their choice. Everyone had something to do and that kept the noise level down, so I was able to get my final grades entered in. A win-win for everyone – at least in my opinion. Ha ha!
5th Grade had their award ceremonies today, and parents who were waiting for their child’s quad were allowed to wait in the cafeteria. Due to this, the cafeteria could not be used for lunch, so we took our students outside to the park for lunch. We gave them some play time afterwards, then came back inside around 1:15. We kept them occupied until 1:45 when the talent show started. We had a lot of singers this year. A few of them sang some “sappy” songs as I call them, and I had to leave the gym for a few minutes because I did not want to become a water faucet of tears.
Towards the end of the show, I was thinking ahead to writing here, and thinking about what spiritual message I could share today. I was thinking about what I have been through, and what came to my mind was “count it all joy.” This comes from the book of James in the Bible. James 1:2 – 4 says,
“2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
Have I mastered this concept in my life? Absolutely not!!!!! I am trying extremely hard! In my human nature, as I am sure you know, it is so much easier to have a pity party and whine “woe is me” instead of being joyful for my trials and focusing on the fact that the testing of my faith produces perseverance.
After school I had a quick doctor’s appointment to follow-up on a new anti-depressant that I started taking three weeks ago. On the way to my appointment I did not turn my radio on but the song that was in my head was “Better Than One Day.” There are various artists who sing this, but I like Kutless…..
I feel like the song fits well with my thoughts of “count it all joy.”
When I left my appointment I headed back to Liberty Hill, to a popular restaurant, Dahlia’s. Several teachers met there for a farewell to four teachers who won’t be returning to our campus next year. During that drive, the song that came into my mind was a song called “Be Still.” I became familiar with this song numerous years ago when I heard The Erwin’s sing it. The Erwin’s are a Christian music family group from Edgewood, Texas. I cannot locate a video of them singing “Be Still”, but I did locate a video from another Christian family group, The Isaac’s, who are based out of Hendersonville, Tennessee…..
Standing still and letting God move is just as hard as counting trials as joy! Yet this is what God WANTS us to do! Since Adam died, I have come to the realization that every significant man in my life has been taken – two by death (my dad and Adam), and two by divorce. My human mind cannot comprehend that, and yet, I must focus on the fact that my HEAVENLY FATHER is always with me. He will never leave me nor forsake me. Again, all of this is hard and I in no way have mastered any of it. I imagine I will be working on it up until the day I leave this earth. I believe, if I am on this earth long enough, that I WILL have an awesome, healthy, successful marriage. I WILL have my own home. I WILL have a family of my own. Until then, I must stand still and let God move.
Back to Dahlia’s. Ha ha. We had a nice time, but I left pretty soon after we ate. We were sitting outside and it was super hot. I feel so uncomfortable and yucky when I am sweating! I came home, got stuff ready for tomorrow, showered, and came to write! For those of you reading this, I sure hope that you enjoy reading as much as I enjoy writing. 🙂
I hope that each of you has an awesome and blessed week!
Note: My blog posts are shown with the most recent posts at the top. If you’d like to read about how this journey began, scroll to my first post, titled “The Journey Begins.” 🙂
My Strength 