busy...busy...busy...

Well...I had a feeling this would happen...I've never been great at keeping up on blogs...but hey I'm back aren't I? Well...in a nutshell...here's what's been happening in my life: working at oconomowoc Memorial Hospital as a nursing assistant 3rd shift (which is a little difficult, but I'm working with it) and going back to school at UW Parkside for my elementary teaching certification. After this spring I am done with normal classes and will just need to complete 9 weeks as an intern/student teacher. There are a lot of hoops that I don't have to jump through since I already received my secondary education degree at parkside, so there are quite a few less classes that I need to take (only 7 classes total). So...I'm very excited to get finished and get back to teaching....
Tim and I close on a house in West Bend, WI on October 28th. We are very excited about it and we love the house, but there's definitely going to be a little bit of stretching in our lives. Tim will live in the house and I'll live at home til we're married...hopefully next summer :)
Well I wish I had more time to update since it's been so long, but I must get back to some other work! I'll try to get on here a little more often.

Change in plans...

Well...it's been a pretty crazy couple months at school (work) and just in general...After much thought and prayer I have made the decision to go back to school to become a nurse. This is quite scary for me, but exciting too. At first when I began to think about this I felt as though the last 6 years were a waste. I have realized though that God has had me in the place where he wants me. And if I hadn't gone into teaching I wouldn't be here. Like God shows us in the book of Esther, He has a plan in everything. I am really excited to be going back for the field that I am. Yes, the money will be better when I get my degree, but that's definitely not the top reason for me to go into nursing. First, the human body and health field has always fascinated me. I had actually contemplated switching into nursing when I was in my 3rd year of my bachelors degree. To study the body and see just how amazing God is in his creation. About half of my friends in college were pre-med, and so I got a lot of exposure to the health field. I have also really thought about what has impacted my life in a positive way. I have encountered nurses because of family and friends and have seen in them something that I want to be able to do. I want to be able to care for people...and with nursing I also get to involve an area that I love.

Extravagant Worship

A friend of mine is reading the book Extravagant Worship by Darlene Zschech and she pointed one of the passages out to me. The word extravagant is defined as "spending much more than is necessary or wise; wasteful"...or something to that effect. It's amazing when you think about that definition and connect it with worship. Martha's sister, Mary, was accused of being wasteful, or extravagant, in her pouring her expensive perfume on Jesus' feet. How right was she. The true worth that she placed on/in her worship of Christ is so powerful. She didn't have abundance to give out of, but she gave something more beautiful than the religious leaders around her were willing to. It makes me think of another story in the Bible, the woman who gave the two coins to the tithe. Some said that her gift was pointless, yet Jesus pointed out that she gave all she had! She gave with her heart and that was what God saw. We are to worship extravagantly, spending much more than is necessary, being wasteful in our worship.

I liked this quote as well...from one of her other books:

"Worship is an act of obedience of the heart. It is a response that requires the very core of who you are to love the Lord for who He is, not just for what He does." (Darlene Zschech)

Grampa

My grampa passed away last Monday of a brain aneurysm. He lived 85 incredible and impactful years. My gramma and grampa have impacted the lives of so many including mine. I probably wouldn't have the relationship or any for the matter with Christ. My grandparents were both married prior to being married to each other. My grandfather took on 4 rambunctous kids and did so in an amazing way. He loved my grandma so deeply. Neither were saved when they got married. They made a decision in 1969 to surrender their lives to Christ and it's amazing what the decision of two people could make. Their children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren have been touched and influenced in the most profound way. I was sitting in the funeral service and it hit me just how much of an impact these two amazing people have had on my life. Although it is my decision to follow Christ, they have truly been part of saving my life.

I have really always looked to my grandparents as one of the couples that I want to resemble when I get married. Their marriage was not without some bumps, but they were so in love and it is one of the things that everyone who encountered them saw. I loved when I was at their house and I would find love notes all over. They would be on the fridge, in the bathroom. I knew from a young age that this was something I want. It doesn't have to be notes, but I want to have a love for my husband that everyone knows about, and vice-versa. I want to marry a man who is in love with Christ and that is what draws our relationship closer.

My grampa was a man of courage, a man who lived what he believed and loved God with all his heart. That is a man to strive to be like.

Accidental or Ordained?

Last Friday in the chapels at Heritage I spoke about Esther and her story in the middle school and another teacher spoke in the high school chapel. It is amazing and I know it may not be something you want to be reminded of, but there is no accident in what happens and what situations we end up in. One of the students spoke about incidents in his life that could be paralleled to Esther, not that they were exact replicas, but that God ordained the situations to happen in the way in which they did. His father died when he was sixteen, completely unexpectedly and Jon was actually not at home or with his family when it happened. The thing is that through all of the things that occurred in his life, Jon is living the life that God has ordained for him to live. One of the things that he said as a comparison to Esther was that had Esther been told five years before everything happened that she would be queen and be a part of saving all the Jews, she would have never believed it. The same was true for Jon. The circumstances of his life, his father passing or even him speaking in the chapel and having the relationship with God that he has, were not things that he would have dreamed of just five years ago. I know that I will never know what you are or have gone through, and I know that we don’t always want to hear it, but God is working through everything and each situation that we are put in, whether it is where we work, the team we are put on, or the cell we are in, God has ordained it and there is a reason that we are in that situation. I don’t believe that things happen by accident; there is a purpose in everything.

Plan A?

Well...right now I'm sitting in my classroom at my desk...no..I'm not supposed to be teaching right now, just on my lunch break. There have been a lot of difficult situations to deal with in the past few weeks, but God has been so faithful. Honestly, 2 weeks ago I really started to follow my own plan of how things should go. There have been some financial issues at school and there have just been a lot of doubts for me lately about where I'm at. Yesterday, Pastor talked about life plans. He focused on the story of Moses. I was really intrigued and challenged by his message. I did today's staff devotional time and had planned on talking about God's greatness and reading from the Psalms. On my way to school I felt that God was telling me to speak about what I had heard in yesterday's message. The fact is, we can make excuses and bring up all of our short comings and why something won't work, but God's plan is always better and our plan will always cost more. If situations were perfect and everything was how it should be then really there wouldn't be a need for God. There are reasons why I doubted the place that I am at in life and when I looked at all the excuses I was making for changing where I'm at I realized that they were all things that God would build me in and He would bring what needed to be brought and that He has always provided and always will. While I was talking to Tim it really hit me that no matter what is going on God is in control and will provide what is necessary. It's amazing how much God's plan (Plan A) makes sense when you look at it more how he sees it. He knows why plan B won't work out as well and will cost so much more. Aaron was not part of God's plan, but Moses wouldn't accept plan A...he wanted it to work his way. Aaron may have been able to speak well, but he didn't have the character. Looking at the big picture Aaron and plan B are the reasons that Moses never entered the Promised Land. Want to follow Plan A...or plan B?

Well...I'm gonna try this out...

I have never been the greatest at doing these blog things, but it seems like it would be the best way for people to know what is going on in my life...and I've definitely been super busy. Well...Let's see...
I guess I should just start at what has happened in my life since this summer. Short story is that I went to Minnesota to train with CTI Music Ministries, met a guy named Tim during training, left for a month to go to Guatemala, saw God move and do amazing, incredible things while there, came back changed and renewed, Tim was there when I got back (huge surprise), he met my parents that week, I went with him to Indiana and met his family, we became an official couple while in Indiana, I came back to Wisconsin, about a month and a half later he moved to Wisconsin, and in the midst of all that I started my second year of teaching high school English at Heritage Christian. It's been quite a crazy time...And I think that I may have actually punctuated that last sentence correctly to make the whole thing a correct, but very long sentence. :)
It may seem quite crazy...and believe me there are times when I am like...whoa...is this for real! Am I going too fast with everything?? What am I doing? I can say honestly that yes this is for real...has life moved fast? yes, but we have prayed through each step. And, I am living my life fully for God, that's what I'm doing.
Tim is an amazing guy. Being in a relationship with him, I have been blessed in so many ways. It's kind of a weird situation. Well, different...he is living with my parents in order to be able to live here and save money in order to figure out living for the future. It's been interesting and great to have him staying with my parents. They were a little skeptical...well..cautious about the relationship. They have really gotten to know Tim and have really grown to like him and see us together. That's really important for me because my family is so important and huge to me. I really do take what they say to heart and I consider it in my decisions. Tim and I had a lot of time to pray and reflect on this relationship both before and during it. God has been leading and aligning our paths in so many different ways. It has been incredible. I have a someone who leads me spiritually, someone to laugh with, to comfort me, to be my best friend, to listen to, and to be heard by. Honestly, I have been scared at times and I've questioned decisions, but God keeps confirming what is going on. At the beginning of each class I have a devotional time that I do. Most times, it ends up being something that speaks right to me when I think I do it just for my students. There was one that I did about a month back about giving God control. One of the girls in my class talked to me about it after class and it was one of those times when I really began to see how God was working in the relationship that Tim and I have. This girl was in a relationship situation that I have been all to familiar with in my past. There were so many times when I've dated a guy because of stupid reasons and the spiritual aspect was usually not present. I was able to tell her just how much better and really incredible the relationship that I have with this man of God is. It was a huge step of faith that he took to move to Wisconsin. I mean really huge. He literally left everything that he knew. He's in a place where I'm one of the only people he really knows, except my parents (who he has really gotten to know pretty well), and his comfort of location (moving from the country to the city). It's been huge to see the control that God truly has in this situation. If I did not feel that God had his hand on this relationship, I really don't think that I would have let him move, but God keeps proving himself to be a part of it all.
Well...I knew that I wouldn't be able to get to everything, but I wanted to put a dent in to what's been going on in my life. I'm really going to try to keep up with doing this blogging thing. I'm at a place in my life that it seems to fit much better. Please keep me, Tim, our relationship, the country of Guatemala (which I'll write about very soon), and my family in your prayers. God Bless!