"Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit. When I was silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.... Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD." and you forgave the guilt of my sin.
Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to you while you may be found; surely when the mighty waters rise, they will not reach him. You are my hiding place. You will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance."
God, over and over the Scripture I am seeing how you use the contrast of groaning and singing- to produce peace and comfort. My hiding place, Lord Jesus, is the peace I have from knowing I am in your will- doing what you want me to do and being where you want me to be. Then- whatever circumstances, trails, hardships, or blessings come- I know they are there because You want them to be, and I know You know, with Your help, I can handle them.
It's funny to think how this time last week, millions of people (us included) were readying ourselves for a hurricane. Hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated from their homes here in New Jersey. (We were a few miles from the cut-off of mandatory evacuations.) I am thankful that God was gracious in not allowing the waters to rise enough to destroy the many homes that were expecting to be swept away.
However, I feel the figurative flood waters begin to rise in my life and I am ever so reminded of how important it is to cling to God.
School started this week. I absolutely love my students and my subject matter that I'm teaching. This year I'm only teaching Home Ec to nine seniors (7 of which are boys!) and a 9th grade Fundamentals of Art class. My classroom is immaculate thanks to my lower-school counterpart, and it makes my working environment a happy and peaceful place. But with the addition to being sleep-deprived and cranky and not able to take a nap during the day, I'm not very pleasant to live with. I'm unhappy with how slow my baby weight seems to be clinging to me still and how little my will-power is to take it off, Molly has developed a wonderful two-year-old attitude, and I'm stressed about getting everything done that I need to.... (figuring out what to do for Molly's birthday, meal planning, keeping Molly occupied, feeding Sadie every 3 hours, working on my commissioned portraits (yay!), trying to stay afloat with laundry...and the list continues.) I'm floundering.
For my Home Ec class this year, I wanted to challenge my students to be more involved in the care and cleaning of their own home. (For some, it looks like it will be a challenge to inspire them to clean their own rooms!) More importantly, I also wanted to inspire them to take better care of their spiritual lives. We read the passage in Luke about Mary and Martha, and how much more important Jesus thought it was to be at His feet than taking care of housework. So I'm doing a project with them called the "Heart and Home Challenge." I gave them a September calendar and had 5 "heart" challenges (Praying for 3 minutes, reading a chapter from the Psalms, putting a memory verse on an index card and reading it before they go to bed, etc.) and 5 "home" challenges (Making their bed, cleaning for 3 minutes straight, doing a chore without being asked...). Heart challenges are worth 10 points and home challenges are worth 7 to emphasize the lesson taught in Luke. They have 30 days to complete at least 3 tasks from each category, and 85 points will get them an A. They have to record it on the calendar and write a paper how the challenges affected them. Easy, right? (I wish I had a Home Ec teacher to keep ME accountable!)
It is always through teaching that I learn the most, and by inspiring my students to become better members of their home and better stewards of their heart, I really really want to do the same. In my drawing, I imagine Mary sitting my the tree with Jesus, her hiding place, and her sister, Martha treading water with the busyness and stress of home and housework. She pleads with Jesus to tell Mary to come join her in the chaos, but Mary is content just to listen to her Savior. Jesus is pleased with exactly where she is.
I feel blessed that God has entrusted me with so much, and I know its my responsibility to take care of it. This passage, this drawing, my students, this hurricane....they all remind me that by sitting at the feet of Jesus first, the tasks that seem so daunting will soon subside when I first take the time to retreat into my Hiding Place.
