Because God has a plan…

Yesterday I was discouraged. All day long I sat and I applied for open teaching positions. I thought that the very fact that I had passed my PLT exam was enough to sustain my joy, but it was not enough. I needed to find a teaching position. However, I didn’t want it to be just ANY teaching position. It had to be where God wanted me to go.

You see, I had a revelation 3 years ago. I realized that God had opened doors with a plan and a purpose. He would not provide the means unless he had a purpose. What I did not know was for what purpose my life had been planned out. I only had a hint at a promise that if God had set it into motion, He did not do so for it to come back void.

Add to this the timid hand that raised up saying, “I want to be used by God. Me. I want to make a difference.”

But I had started to lose hope.

Had I not prayed? Had I not asked God to show me where He wanted me to go?

But I could sense my hope fleeing and I did not like it.

So last night, I pulled my Bible out and I turned to Psalms and I started to read…

I stopped.

“God,” I prayed, “These are not the words that I want to hear right now. They just aren’t relevant to what I’m dealing with. God, what is it that You want me to know.”

And just like that, the minor prophet, Habakkuk, popped into my head.

“Really?”

I turned the pages of my Bible over to Habakkuk and I started to read: “How long, O Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen?”

Whoa! I thought to myself, God are you trying to tell me that my prayers are redundant? You know this is how I feel?

I read through all the way to Habakkuk 2:3. Then I stopped. I pulled out a post-it note and I wrote these words on it: Because God has a plan, I will find a teaching job and an apartment! Habakkuk 2:2-3.

Then I prayed that it would be God’s timing and not mine, because Habakkuk 2:2-3 says: “Then the Lord replied: ‘Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.’”

I am a firm believer that you should read things in context. I am also a firm believer that God speaks to us in ways that we are not always aware. However, the very fact that it was this book that popped in my head and this verse that caused me to stop and pray was beyond coincidence.

Then today rolls around and this afternoon, I became discouraged. The jobs that I wanted that were local were filled. I told someone on Facebook that I was going to start looking into jobs in other states starting tomorrow. I walked out of my little study room and I walked into the living room, sat down on the couch, and I was in the process of revealing my new plan to my dad. That’s when my phone rang.

I looked down and recognized the phone number. I looked at my dad and said, “I really need to take this call.”

“Hello?”

“Ms. Bishop, this is Ms. Davis…”

“Hello, Ms. Davis, how have you been? It is so good to hear from you.”

“Well, I was calling to let you know that I am sending your contract in the mail. If you are still interested? You will start January 3rd.”

My heart stopped beating. I couldn’t catch my breath. I was trying to signal to my dad what was going on.

I had a job. It was the job that I interviewed for back in November. You know, the one where when I came back from everything up here seemed to have slipped into a sort of Twilight Zone or alternative universe and I just did not belong to it anymore.

Did I mention that last part?

When I drove down to Timmonsville, SC to interview for the job, I drove around and just looked at the area. I prayed all the way down there that morning that God would grant me a sense of peace if that was the right decision for me to make. If moving was what I was supposed to do, then God was going to let me know. As I passed by a cotton field (and there are a lot of cotton fields down there) I suddenly had a moment where I knew this is where I belonged. I could see myself down there teaching and writing. I just knew.

Then the interview went so well that I thought, “This is my job!”

When I came back home, I felt like an outsider. It was as though I did not belong here anymore. I think that is what discouraged me the most about trying to find a job: nothing seemed to be suitable. It just wasn’t home, even though I was home.

I have a job. I have a teaching job!

God delivered a job.

God will bring me to a place to live as well. I’m not sure exactly where or how. I’m not even certain as to how I am going to afford it. This next part will truly test my faith in God. I will be going down there with NO place to live. I will be going down there on nothing more than that revelation that I wrote down on a yellow post-it and stuck it on the wall.

God will provide.

I am so thankful that He has a plan.

The Little Things… and the Big Things, Too

Yesterday, I went to my nephew’s “soon-to-be” wife’s baby shower. She is a sweet girl, who fits so well with everyone in the family. They are having a precious baby girl [who will be rather spoiled, I might add]. Everyone is so excited.

It seems rather odd to be saying that I will soon be a great-aunt, but in some ways, it feels good, too. When she opened my gift yesterday, she looked at the name tag and said, “YOU are Aunt Marcy!”

I replied, “Yes.”

She said, “All I hear about is Aunt Marcy. Aunt Marcy. And I thought, ‘Who is this Aunt Marcy?’ I thought your name was Martha?”

Yes. Everyone has called me Marcy in my family and I’m okay with it. Because… Life goes on and with it, things change. Even I have changed in my life.

I look back on

My Blonde Moment

I don’t know why I never caught the connection. I mean, I should understand what it is that I’m going to school for, but sometimes you just end up having one of those moments where there seems to be some sort of disconnect in the thought process.

Here is the dilemma:

Please Pay Attention to the Following Announcement…

You just gotta love school announcements…

In Gary Paulsen’s book, Mudshark, my son Kyle got a huge kick out of the way each chapter started with the Principal making an announcement.  Well, this week I’ve been working my student teaching practicum at the local Middle School, and I have to say that the announcements have been at times humorous.  I’m sure that Mr. Y did not mean for them to come across as funny, but the teacher and I- along with the students in class- got a real chuckle out of them.

Dr. S and Shakespeare

When I decided to go back to school, I was confronted with a dilemma that I did not know how to face:  Professors who are your own age and opinionated.  This normally would not bother me, because I love a challenge.  I don’t mind having professors close to my own age, and most of them accepted me for what I could bring to the classes.  However, every once in a while, you run across a professor who takes their title entirely too seriously.  This includes Dr. S. and more so,  last semester’s nemesis, Dr. L..

Worried? About what?

The closer my graduation date gets, the more worried I become.  I’m not quite sure what I really thought I was going to do when I graduate in May 2011 with my English Education degree, but I thought that surely God had a plan for me.  But you know, I’m not the average college student graduating at the age of 21/22. 

So much to do, and so little time

I can hardly believe that another semester has come and gone by (or is about to go by).  I spoke with one of my professors earlier this week and I when the words came out of my mouth, I could hardly believe I had been the one speaking them.  I only have 2 more semesters until I do my Pre-Clinical and after that comes Clinical and graduation!  It seems rather surreal to be speaking of graduating college, something that I have put off for nearly 20 years!  But I suppose that the Lord knows when the timing is right, and I do not.  I needed to first mature before He could properly use me and I needed to put my priorities into order.  I told my professor that I have a very important decision to make and I need to pray about these next two semesters.  For myself, do I take the easy route and complete my Clinical at the school I would love to work at and where I know everyone?  Or, do I go to the school that is in the greatest need for teachers who care and can mentor students who NEED the support of a caring adult?  I wanted to teach because I want to make a difference.  But who needs me the most?

In the meantime, I know that my chances for making the Dean’s List this semester are long gone.  I opted to not stress the small stuff and to do my best without placing so much on myself.   I hated doing that to myself last semester, especially after working so hard to maintain a 3.5 gpa across the board only to have it dashed by a group project where we received a poor grade.  That alone brought my gpa down to 3.4562, and you need a 3.5 to make the list.  They don’t round up!  Imagine, missing by .0038.  It’s just sad.

Speaking of group projects, I have mine due on Tuesday.  I have yet to finish my part of the assignment.  I thought at first that the assignment would be easy, but the more I learn, the more complicated it became.  How hard could it be to try and replicate the garments worn my Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn?  VERY!  So I’m hoping to get those finished up by the end of the weekend.

On top of that, I’m trying to finish writing my paper on the etymology of daisy.  I have no clue where to start and I’ve changed my outline 4 different times.  It was due last Friday.  I will be lucky to have it completed by tomorrow.  Plus the professor sent out our final chapter test.  No regular test this time.  Instead we have 5 difficult questions to answer, whereby we will analyze the language changes in the passages provided, comparing the differences between grammar construction of the Early Modern English to that of the Modern English today.  Did I mention I haven’t been in school for the last 20 years and grammar has since flown out of my brain?

Well, I need to finish up all these projects.  Until Later…..