I am a social studies teacher at a public middle school, and I love it.  My seventh graders truly bring joy to my life.  Don’t get me wrong, I do have those days, and more honestly, those students, but on the whole, I love my job. 

As you may imagine, God has taught me a lot about patience and self-control in working with 12-13 year olds, but something that He has impressed upon me even more is that in all things, He is in control. 

I struggled with my students a lot last year, and I was in a morning prayer group with some other teachers, when God reminded me that He was in control of even my class roles.  This was such basic truth that I had overlooked.  I became in awe of God’s presence over all things, and was humbled to know that I had the students I did for a reason.  The students who I struggled with, those that seemingly despised me, those that didn’t care about my class at all, and those that loved and respected me.  This changed the way I thought about each child and the way that I interacted with them.  Knowing that every last one of them was in my room for a reason made me suddenly aware of the great opportunity and responsibility I had to serve them well.  

Let this be an encouragement to you that wherever you spend your days, not only is God with you through it all, but He intentionally has you where you are.

This week we’re writing about different ways that our work is leading us and others to Christ. Like each of you reading this blog, I have a number of different jobs/roles in my life (wife, mom, Nurse Practitioner, family accountant, house cleaner, cook, etc.), but I’ll just focus on a couple today.

I can’t even begin to tell you how much being a wife and mother has taught me about the Lord, my sin, my relationship with God, my need for His help. My love for my husband and children (and their love for me) continues to teach me so much about God’s love for me as His bride and his daughter. My children’s uninhibited love for the Lord and His reality in their lives is such an example to me.

The last 5 months I’ve been working as a Nurse Practitioner in a clinic located in Walgreens. It has been a privilege to be able to treat some of our church members, as well as encourage other believers who have come to see me. I have also been struck by how lost and hurting people are without the Lord, and have been really challenged to let Christ’s love shine through me. But how does that look - does it mean inviting those who are receptive to church activities, does it mean treating my patients with dignity and care, does it mean genuinely caring about my co-workers and speaking freely but not in a pushy way about my relationship with the Lord and fellow believers? These are some of the questions I’ve been thinking of as I try to figure out what it really means to live as salt and light.

I’m really thankful for the privilege of serving in these 2 roles, and have definatly been challenged as I really try to figure out what it looks like to live as a genuine Christian in my personal and work life.

I have an “answered prayer” story to share with you. It’s very much a story that could have – and almost did – turn out very sad, but instead ended very happily, and I believe the Lord orchestrated this into my life to teach me many things, one of which was the importance of persistent prayer. I suppose I’m sharing it to reinforce the concept that nothing is too big or small to pray about, and to keep praying about. God is a generous Father who loves to give good gifts to His children. He cares about all aspects of your life - your feelings, your hopes, your dreams. He created you, after all. It’s the story of how my husband and I came to be engaged.

Matt and I had been very good friends throughout my college years. We endured endless questions from others who wanted some definition of our relationship, and we maintained the line that we were indeed just friends. That was the truth – the sad, sad truth, in my opinion. Matt insisted he thought I was a wonderful person in many ways, but that he simply didn’t have romantic interest in me. And that was the truth, too. He’ll tell you to this day. So, what could I do but pray? It’s not that he didn’t notice me, it’s not that he didn’t like me, it’s not that he just needed to spend more time with me so I could woo him with my feminine charm. No, it was a heart issue, and there’s only one Person in charge of heart issues, so I went to Him regularly to plead that He would change Matt’s heart on the matter.

After 3 ½ years of close friendship, I began to sense that the relationship was going nowhere and since I’d graduated from college 9 months hence, I realized – very much through the prompting of the Holy Spirit – that I needed to get on with my life by breaking off my friendship with Matt, which I did. It was immensely painful, but through it all I felt joy and peace because I had a very strong sense of assurance that I’d been obedient to what the Lord was calling me to do in that situation. Believe me, the easier thing would have been to stay “just friends” forever – at least then I would have had something, right?

As I’ve mentioned, throughout the 3 ½ years before this quasi-breakup I prayed regularly for God to change Matt’s heart. The Lord brought me to a place of realization that even if He didn’t change Matt’s heart, it was going to be okay, and after I surrendered to this, he went ahead and did it anyway. The coolest part of the story – to me, at least – is that Matt had been praying the same thing all along – that God would change his heart - using this same language, and you have to understand that Matt and I don’t normally speak like this. We usually think in terms of our minds and thoughts, and not so much our hearts and feelings, so the fact that not only were we praying the same thing without knowing it, we were using the same rarely-used terminology.

So, there you go. God answered my prayer, finally. Most of our friends had given up after almost 4 years but the Lord knew what He was doing. Would He have brought me and Matt together had I not prayed? I guess there’s no way to know. I do know that through prayer, God involves us in His doings, and that’s no small thing. This story of answered prayer in my life is one that I look to time and again to remind me of the importance and privilege of prayer. I have a tangible reminder of it everyday – my sweet husband.

Happy Valentine’s Day, ladies!

In honor of today, here are some points of interest I didn’t know regarding V-Day, gleaned from the Wikipedia’s article on Valentine’s Day.

According to the Greeting Card Association, 25% of all holiday cards sent are Valentines, making it the second largest card-sending occasion after Christmas. Women buy more than 85% of Valentines purchased.

The “St. Valentines” who were originally honored on February 14 are Valentine of Rome, who was a priest in Rome and was martyred in AD 269, and Valentine of Terni, who was bishop of Interamna (modern Terni) and was killed sometime in the early 200s.

These guys had no connection with romantic love, which is what we nowadays celebrate on Valentine’s Day. The first recorded association of romantic love and Valentine’s Day was in a poem written by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 1300s.

My husband and I don’t really celebrate Valentine’s Day. Our engagement anniversary is February 16, so we choose to celebrate that instead. Actually, we don’t have “romantic” plans for that day, either. Hmm. Anyway, the real reason we don’t make a big deal on Valentine’s Day is because we think it’s a little forced. We’d like to think we show love to each other throughout the year, so no need to put pressure on one day, you know? How about you? Do you celebrate Valentine’s Day? What are some ways in which you’ve enjoyed celebrating it over the years?

Brightlight Books is having a year-end sale on December 6, 7, and 8 (Thursday, Friday and Saturday). All books, CDs, and DVDs will be priced from $0.49-$2.99! I’m going because they have a great selection of used books on theology, philosophy, religious and biblical studies, and so I hope to find some great presents for my book-loving husband, Matt. Brightlight is a bookstore specializing in new, old, and out-of-print books. They also have a wide collection of DVD’s and CD’s. They have over 8,000 books categorized into categories including Art, Decorating, Photography, Children’s, Technology, History, Classics, Fiction and many, many more. Check it out and see if you can’t find some great gifts!

Brighthouse Books is located at 1099 State Road 436 Casselberry, FL 32707 near the intersection of 436 and Red Bug Lake Rd.