"The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time."
- Abraham Lincoln
Well...this picture is incorrect because by now, I've completed 6 full weeks of teaching and one more to go! It has been quite a learning experience, but I have loved the opportunity to be working with a phenomenal teacher and a fun and quite energetic group of Grade One's.
When you spend the day with children who think you are one of the best artists they've ever seen, despite me drawing a monkey that looks like a pig, it does wonders for your self esteem. Alright, well it hasn't been that dreamy. But they do bring a smile to my face with their wonder, excitement and random outbursts. Just on Friday I was told I sing like a brown woman and speak like a lady, who would have ever guessed? I don't even know what that really means to a six-year old.
As my final year of schooling is promising to soon come to an end, I find myself experiencing that 'What's next?' anxiety that I never thought I would actually experience. Other than graduating from high school and deciding which school to go to for bible school or university, this will be the first time I must really make a decision that will lead into the unfolding of many possibilities for the future. A fresh new season...
Making decisions is not my forte, nor my favorite past time activity. Somewhere along the line, I picked up this habit of wanting to make perfect choices in order to save myself any grief or pain. While I have managed to escape any extreme repercussions from some of the 'bad' decisions I have made in the past, I realized I have to give credit to the Lord for His magnificent gift of turning difficult or hard situations into the beautiful experiences in which I have learned more about myself, others around me, and that most importantly, I can trust in my faithful Jesus.
I was reading in Hosea this morning and I read about the Lord's anger and wrath on the people of Israel for their unfaithfulness to Him and for their lack of recognition of how He had provided for them.
"I will also put an end to all her gaiety, her feasts of her new moons, her sabbaths and all her festal assemblies...I will punish her for the days of the Baals when she used to offer sacrifices to them and adorn herself with her earrings and jewelry, and follow her lovers so that she forgot Me,' declares the Lord."
- Hosea 2:11 & 13As I finished these verses I was so engulfed with reading of His fury that the next few verses (despite having read them before), took me by surprise and immediately brought peace to my heart:
"Therefore, behold, I will allure her, bring her into the wilderness and speak kindly to her...For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, so that they will be mentioned by their names no more...I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice, in lovingkindness and in compassion, and I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, then you will know the LORD."
- Hosea 2: 14, 17, 19 & 20That is our Jesus (for those who believe in Him). He is Forgiveness and Restoration, He is our Provider, the one who blesses and sustains us, demands and deserves our thanks and grateful hearts, our attention and appreciation. However, despite the moments in life when we get caught up in comfort, confusion, disobedience, and 'forget' Him, how GOOD is He to still promise to woo us back to Him and speak kindly to us?
Later in chapter 6, Israel responds with this:
"So let us know, let us press on to know the LORD. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; and He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth."
- Hosea 6:3Amidst the nerves and unknown of the future months ahead and searching for a job and seeing 'what's next', deciding what steps to take in other situations in my life, hearing and praying for my friends and family struggling and experiencing various situations in their own lives, and amidst the destruction and sadness that is occurring in the world around me (such as in Japan), I am called to be on my knees in prayer and find that my only hope is found in a man named Jesus, who despite everything, promises to be faithful and refreshing in all circumstances.
And I desire to hear His voice and to walk with Him. And I desire to lose any fear and worry in 'making a wrong decision' and to just be willing to take steps forward and embrace His life and see where He leads. How can we go too far wrong with such a God at our side?
"Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying,
"This is the way; walk in it."
Isaiah 30:21
