Thankful

This past quarter I have been taking classes online. While this has been an interesting balancing act between deaning, life, the Christmas show here, and school, it has forced me to sit down and write for my various classes. I have found that I truly do like writing, but also that I would much rather share my thoughts while friends and family rather that just with my professors. So since I am on break now and have a little time for editing I thought I would throw some up on here to share. This is a discussion board from my teaching class the week after thanksgiving. Our prompt was, "what are you most thankful for this week?" I didn't just wanting to throw out something stereotypical but rather focus on a truth God was blessing me with in that time. So if you have five minutes here is a little nugget to chew over.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My heart sank into my stomach as it dawned on me that it was officially Thursday. I was standing back stage in full costume and makeup for a presentation Word of Life Bible Institute does to share the gospel. (The Sights and Sound of Christmas) It was the second presentation of the day. Friday we were scheduled to have two more and Saturday as well. The day of the week can be easy to lose track of at word of life, and the news came as such an unwelcomed revelation because  with the online classes I am taking, homework is due Saturdays at midnight. My normal routine has been making Fridays evenings and Saturdays homework days and getting my work done just as the clock strikes midnight. With work and the shows home work had not happened. I hadn't even taken time to check what my assignments were much less do them. My situation looked bleak. Perhaps passing college courses isn’t all its cracked up to be, I could always preach the gospel and panhandle…. Don’t need a degree for that.
Ok maybe I am being dramatic but at that moment I didn’t think I would prove to be possible to accomplish all I had before me at that moment.

I want to pause for a moment and clarify, life is good! There is no question about that. Life is full of wonderful blessing from an incredible God I simply don’t deserve:

My salvation
my family (my sister is engaged! And i had gotten to be with my family in Atlanta for Thanksgiving day!)
the gospel was being preached and God was using me in it, even if it be a small part
I have rich Christian fellowship
my job is surreal
I have my health and wits more often than naught
my faith leads to actual peace and Joy found in the source of all such things as I seek Him
awesome roommates
working with awesome guys
I enjoy life
I sing ok
I can speak Spanish pretty well
I been have been in God honoring relationships as of late and I don’t have regrets
God is patient with me
A rich Christian heritage
opportunities to be used
I am accepted in the Beloved

And many other blessings… None of which I accomplished or I deserved

but at that moment I was overwhelmed. I did have time for anything I didn’t have enough energy to enjoy the blessing or thank Him properly.

I sat in the dark of back stage right and just took a moment with Jesus mid-show. Thinking of a Psalm I had just read, in which the last verse after talking about the strength of the Lord was a request for strength for the psalmist, I thought a similar prayer, and sang in my head the song I've been mulling over lately. “give me strength, to trust what you say. That your real, and your spirits strong in me…”

I left it there in the hands of the Lord and went on with the show.

So after the shows finished and I had dinner and did some deaning I pulled out my laptop flipping it on. The fan started to whir and the screen came slowly to light. When I pulled open my weekly assignments I dreaded what i might find. However, I found a work load for that week relatively small and very managable.

God considers me! In the big and small, He is considerate of me.  “For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.?”
Ps 103:14

God knows I am nothing more but dust. He is not suprised in the least bit when my strength fails me. He even knows exactly what grade of dust I am. (which is apparently not all that strong of dust) And He is unbothered by it!

God gave me a small work load this week because He knew I needed it. Because He goes before me and blazes a trail, even though He forever walks with me!

He knows how weak I am and for that I am grateful. I know He has plenty to carry His children forward as they rest in Him. God did not need me to hold him up. For that I am very grateful, a forever powerful God who takes time to consider me.

Praise the Lord!