God Things

I can’t believe it’s Friday already, though I must confess, it’s nice to have a three day weekend (it’s a holiday on Monday-yes!) Today, my 4 and 5 year olds threw me a surprise party to say thank you for teaching them English (that is all of them in the picture) It was so sweet and encouraging. My 1st and 2nd graders have been somewhat of a challenge week, simply because they are just being so mean to each other. Please pray that they will just learn to show love to each other. God has really taught me a lot through teaching them though. Love is not an easy thing, and you hear all the time that love is a choice, and it takes work. Well, seeing how easy it is for me to respond without patience to my students when they don’t want to listen or to see them react to each other when someone calls them a name, it really just opens my eyes of what love truly is. I choose to respond in love with patience or I choose to be snappy with them and respond in impatience-it’s my choice, am I going to choose to love or not to-in your mind it sounds so simple, doesn’t it? But in reality, choosing to love is hard. And the more I see what love truly is and the work it takes, the more humbled I am at God’s love, and I am just in awe of Him and the love He demonstrated for me. I tell my kids that if God could love us, we should have no problem loving each other, which more and more, I’m seeing how true that is. I’ve been in church all my life and accepted Christ as my Savior when I was 4, but the older I am and seeing how challenging having patience can be or seeing my kids just not getting along, the more I see how amazing the love of God is and how much we have to love others!

Another God-thing in my life is how God really is our strength and comfort when we let Him. This past week, there have been ups and downs, but God has been so awesome. For example, on Sunday, I just felt really alone, and on Sunday night, no joke, the sermon was about when you are alone, you are not really alone because God is right there beside you-He is giving you strength, He is your constant, He is faithful. Then this week, with my kids acting up, I was getting pretty discouraged, and there are still times when I just wish I knew Spanish completely, yet once again through my devotions, talking to my amazing brother and friends, and reading the story of Amy Carmichael, God just encouraged me and strengthened me. He used these tools just to remind me that I am not alone in my struggles nor I am I alone in my blessings. It’s just so humbling that when we are willing to continue on, not because of ourselves (because He knows how weak I am) and we want to hear from Him, He is faithful-we just need to be still and know that He is God!!

Please continue to pray for me-I believe that God has sustained me through your prayers as well! Enjoy your weekend and next week!

Because of Christ,
Rhonda