Staying the course...

Flowers in my kitchen last summer

I live near a rather large University. Hubby has both a B. S. and an M.S. degree from it, daughter has a B. A., the world's best son-in-law received his M.S. and Ph.D. (and my daughter) all from said University. I started my Bachelor's Degree in Management (planning to specialize in Economics) at that same University. All that to say... I know the difference between undergrad and graduate level classes.

God has had me in the graduate school of trust and faith again lately. That's the area He takes us when we've passed those minor tests, at least the majority of them. You know when you're in grad school when God allows all kinds of trials all at once and then looks at you to see how you are going to act in a hurricane force storm. Been there before...

Case in point... last night the phone rang just after Christopher left for his 4:00 class. He said the steering on the car wasn't working right. He called later after his 8:00 class was over and said not only was the steering not working right but it took trying to start the car a few times to get it to finally start. This is the only working car. (We drove the other car to the transmission place today to get an official estimate.)

This morning we drive in a cold rain to take Christopher to his morning class and waited for him at the campus library. I pulled out the David Wilkerson sermon newsletters I've been keeping in my Bible and underlined some of the scripture he had recommended for these troubling times. I've read and re-read his recent sermons a number of times and I still draw peace from them.

We dropped Christopher off at work, picked up the other car and drove it to the transmission place, and then stopped by my husband's favorite "place that sells stuff for cars". He was inside for only a few minutes, asked me to pop the hood of the old car, and poured in some tranny fluid. Sigh... if only all my challenges could be solved so easily.

It wasn't until I arrived home and marveled at the difference a little fluid can do to a car that I realized I wasn't as tense as I had been. Peace had taken the place of fear and fretting. Except for my power steering working better, nothing had changed so what was it?

I knew... the Oil for my lamp had been at work in my soul. Just as the fluids poured into the power steering had made it easier to steer the car, so the Word which I had absorbed while sitting in the library had made its way from my spirit to my heart and my mind. Where there had been fear, there was now faith. Where doubt had lingered, hope appeared. His very presence brought peace, even though the situation had not changed much.

There's something else that differentiates graduate students from the undergrads... at the graduate level the students are often also teachers. They teach what they have learned in the lessons they have gone through already.

That is where I want to be... sharing what I've learned along the way while staying the course He has set before me. Graduate school is hard work but then again, so is Freshman Engineering. Wherever we are in life, the challenges aren't always fun but they are necessary to become the person HE wants us to be.

Christopher was talking about one of his professors on the way to his class this morning. This guy has been a proverbial pain in the exterior anatomy but never has he had a teacher that has inspired him and taught him as much as this man (although he hated to admit it).

Yeah, I know... no disrespect to He Who Created the Universe but I've felt that way about you Lord. I mean, really, if this is the way you treat your friends I'd hate to be your enemy. But that is where it differs... between being His children and His enemy.

He brings us through the fire to mold us and shape us and like a true Father, desires only our best. Every time we decide to trust instead of fear... we become more like Him. Every time we thank Him for His provision, before we see it... we become more like Him. Whenever we accept His will for our life rather than stomping our feet and demanding our own way... we become more like Him.

Someday we'll be graduating and I hear there is a place at the celebration banquet table for those who persevere. I may be exhausted and out of breath when I arrive but keep my place at the table because I will make it!

I hope you are enjoying the Deepening the Pantry links on the side bar. I'll continue more research after getting some e-mails caught up! :)