Praises!

I have several praises to the Lord today. Often we as imperfect humans spend much of our time asking God for things. Sometimes we ignore him completely until we want something from Him. Many of us, myself included, fall into the habit of coming to God in prayer with our needs and desires. This is fine to do, but we should never forget to come to him with our praises, thanking Him for all He has done. So, today that is what I want to do. I have already thanked God for much of this, but I wanted to share my praises in blog form to really show how He is working in my life.

First of all, He helps me with school. I started a graduate program this semester, and I've wanted to stay ahead and use my time wisely. Being 20 minutes away from home, I stay on campus between work and classes. This has given me time to do homework, work out, etc... God has worked our circumstances out in such perfect timing that I've been able to really utilize the time in each day because of the location of our new house. It has been important to me to try my best to get things done during the day so that I can limit the time I have to spend away from Scott doing homework at night and on weekends. This is my first semester of school as a saved Christian, and I have approached it in such a different way from my past. I used to let things pile up and wait until the very last minute. If I felt overwhelmed, I usually continued to put things off until I was panicked and sick with stress. This time around, I'm praying through things. With each assignment, and this is at work and school, I first pray that God will give me His wisdom to complete the assignment in a way that is pleasing to Him. I pray that He will guide me and encourage me to use my time wisely and plan accordingly to get things finished in a timely manner. I pray that He take all my stress, worry, and anxiety from me during the process. I pray that He not let anything draw a wedge between first myself and Him and secondly myself and Scott. I also pray that I do not get so bogged down in work that I don't allow time for fellowship with family and friends, service at church, or simple rest and relaxation time for myself. Now, you could argue that the difference in program, the difference in my schedule, or even my natural maturing as I get older is making the difference in my school habits. But I know who I am apart from God, and it's not pretty. I'm a wreck half the time, and I allow myself to put things off without remorse. I can tell perhaps in a way that no one else could, that I am now stronger, calmer, more diligent, and put more care into my work. I can say that I'm further ahead with my projects and assignments than ever before, and I feel like I can approach each of them with more certainty than before. If only I had this relationship with God during undergrad or the MAT program! But it's also comforting because I feel like God approves of this path since He is guiding me along it so well! :) And, as I said, this applies to work as well. I've been helping with marketing more and more and have no background in it! I'm learning as I go. I often am presented with an assignment that I really don't know how to handle. I pray about it, and then I manage to get through it. Usually God clarifies it for me so I better understand what I'm doing. Sometimes I feel directed to seek help or knowledge through a specific source. But whatever it is, the things I've been doing at work have already started producing fruits for my office! Just this week I had someone from Civil War News contact me in regards to an email I had sent and they want to run a story on our museum and the Camp Lawton findings.

This past week I had a few scary things happen. They may not seem like a big deal, but they are things that really made me praise God for His protection! There were two bank robberies last week. One of them was our credit union! I had planned out my afternoon schedule and was planning to be there at 2:30, after finishing my lunch. As I was eating, I thought I would watch a show online. I was only going to watch the first few minutes until I finished eating and then leave. Instead I ended up watching the whole 44 minutes of it and got to the bank around 2:50 instead. As I pulled in I saw that it was closed, but there were cars and people inside. I pulled up to see what was going on and realized there were police officers there. One pulled into the spot beside me, and I left. I found out the next day that it was the bank robbery and that it happened at 2:30! I could have easily been there if I had followed my schedule better. I'm not trying to promote watching TV and procrastinating, but I believe God altered my plans in the simplest way possible to keep me from being there when it happened. Could be a coincidence, but I don't think so. Either way, I praise Him for me not being there when that all went down.

Another crazy thing, Friday night Scott and I decided to bake a cake. We allow ourselves to bake one dessert a month, and we decided to cash in our Sept. treat. We were watching a movie and I had a view of the kitchen from my spot on the couch. I looked over and saw that the inside of the oven was lit up and flashing! I said, "I think the oven's on fire!!" Scott ran in and the heating element inside the oven had a short and was sparking and flaming. We tried pouring water on it, but that didn't help. Not knowing what else to do, we pulled out the fire extinguisher and emptied it in the oven. Neither of us had used one before and didn't realize that it would fill the entire house with this powdery substance. The air was full of it and we had to open all the doors and windows. Every surface of our house was covered in a thick blanket of powder. We called Jeff (our neighbor/land lord who is also a fire marshall) and he came down with a box fan to help us air it out. Today someone was supposed to come out to see if the part can be replaced or if the whole oven needs replacing. I'm sure we'll find out from Jeff this evening what the call was. Anyway, though it was scary, ruined our cake, and resulted in about an hour and a half of cleaning the house around 9:00 at night, I am so thankful that nothing worse happened. If I hadn't seen the fire, it could have gotten out of control. If we didn't have a fire extinguisher, it could have gotten worse. If we didn't have nice and caring neighbors nearby, we would have hard time getting all that out of the air. I praise God for protecting us and watching over us at all times! Things that may seem bad often have reasons to be thankful, too!

And finally, God has put it on Scott's heart to go to seminary to pursue ministry! He applied today to Liberty University for an MA in Pastoral Counseling. For those who don't know, Scott has always lacked clear direction in his life. For more details, you can read his blog about it. But it's a HUGE deal that he is feeling strongly called to ANYTHING, and it is such a blessing that it's ministry! I couldn't be more pleased and excited for him! I can really see him in this role and I know God has big plans for his life. I thank Him for speaking to Scott and guiding him to this degree. We often have to wait for God's timing to work out, and often this can be frustrating. Scott has been waiting and praying about this for about a year and a half now. I believe God wanted him to be content with what he had and also seek first the Kingdom. Once Scott stopped worrying about it, starting seeking God and not obsessing about his future, God opened the doors for him. He used other people to share and encourage Scott in this direction, and though he has received some opposition, we believe that ultimately, God's will is what is important. Scott believes he is being called in this direction and so do I. I have prayed about this countless times, and I've always felt in my heart that ministry and seminary were in his future. I couldn't force that or try to convince him of it. I have been supporting him no matter what his thoughts, ideas, and plans are. I'm excited that he now seems to have a clear vision and it's something that I understand, agree with, and am proud to say he's pursuing. Many of his other aspirations were okay, but not something I would have necessarily wanted for us. This feels right in every way! Praise God! :)

That is it for today, though I could go on and on forever! I love that I serve such a good God who loves us, walks with us, guides us, and protects us every step of our lives! Thank you, Jesus! :)