When the Going Get's Tough; Despair vs Trust

How amazing is it that when reading the Bible, some passage that you've read time and time again can stick out to you in a new and different way upon reading it again? God's Word is truly "living and active" (Hebrews 4:12). The other day I was reading in Exodus about Moses and Aaron going and appealing to Pharaoh to let the Israelites go. Not only did Pharaoh not let them go, but he made their work harder;

"The same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their foremen, 'You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as in the past; let them go and gather straw for themselves. But the number of bricks that they made in the past you shall impose on them, you shall by no means reduce it, for they are idle. Therefore they cry, 'Let us go and offer sacrifice to our God,' Let heavier work be laid on the men that they may labor at it and pay no regard to lying words'" Exodus 5:6-9

This made their work much harder, and they were not able to complete the quotas, and thus, "...the foremen of the people of Israel, whom Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them were beaten and were asked, 'Why have you not done all your task of making bricks today and yesterday ,as in the past?'"(5:14). They appealed to Pharaoh, but to no avail (5:15-18).

Then I came across these verses: "The foreman of the people of Israel saw that they were in trouble when they said, 'You shall by no means reduce your number of bricks, your daily task each day.' They met Moses and Aaron, who were waiting for them as they came out from Pharaoh; and they said to them, 'The LORD look on you and judge, because you have made us stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us'" Exodus 5:20-21

It is quite easy to be critical of these Israelites; however, as I was reading this I was struck by a thought. How many times do we hope and pray to God for something, only to find the situation seems to stay the same or even grow worse? How often in those situations are we tempted to despair and think that God is not helping us or not working in the situation? Maybe we even wonder if He cares. However, even though the Isrealites despaired at what appeared to be a worsening situation, God was at work! He was in the process of delivering them from slavery! We know this because we have the whole story set before us in the Bible, but they did not know what was to come. We can learn from them to take hope, no matter our situation; even if it seems to be unchanging or even growing worse we can have faith that God IS working. It may or may not work out the way we think we want it to, but God is in control, He IS doing a work whether we notice it or not, and He made a promise to us:

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28

Therefore we should not despair in our bad situations, but rather trust God, and continue to pray and to wait.

And so it begins...

Tomorrow is my first day of graduate school! My class tomorrow is "The Child and the Family." In addition to that I am also taking; Advanced Classroom Management (Practicum), Advanced Child Development Theory, and Reading to Learn Across Curriculum (this one is online). I am looking forward to the classes, but nervous about getting all my practicum hours in! I will be doing half of those at the ODU Child Study Center working with young children, and half in an elementary school (don't know which one yet) in a 4th, 5th , or 6th grade classroom. Should be fun at least. On top of this I am still working part time at my job. Here's to a crazy semester! It will probably be my last "real" semester; if all goes as planned, I will take four classes this summer and be student teaching in the fall, graduating next December (2012).

The New Year and the Old

I had a great time bringing in the New Year with friends at the Hulme's house. Then today, on New Year's Day got to celebrate by worshiping the one who gave this new year and gives us each new day! This past year has been a good year for the most part, though at times stressful especially in the area of school. I wanted to share a few of the highlights from 2011.

Martin Wedding: This was probably my favorite event of the entire year; seeing one of my best friends go from Kaitlin Richards to Kaitlin Martin as she married Drew, the love of her life. Even better, I got to take part in her special day as a bridesmaid!

Mexico: I also got to travel with a team to Rancho 3M in Mexico. It was a hard week; though it was cooler than other years since we went earlier in the year instead of mid-summer it was still very dry and there was lots of work to be done. It was still a very good time, and I so much enjoyed the children as well as getting to know the people on the team a little bit better. God was gracious and protected us all despite the risk of danger in that part of the world.

Next: Later in that same month (May) I was able to go to the Next conference in Orlando. I carpooled with several other people from my care group and it was a long, but fun drive. The conference was amazing and I also enjoyed the fellowship with friends, and making new friends!

Graduation and Christmas; I graduated from undergrad this December, and this Christmas was our first year to get a Christmas tree! You can read more about those in the post below this one.

White wedding; As one of the last events of 2011, I was able to attend Brittany's wedding whom we have known for many, many years. It was a sweet wedding, and I am very happy for her and her new husband as they begin their life together.

So what is to come in 2012? I do not know for sure, but I am looking forward to finding out!