Hello again, Coffee Talkers!
My apologies for not blogging yesterday, for anyone who noticed. The last time my personal laptop punked out on me I decided to not replace it and to just use computers at work, library, university, etc. Overall it’s been a great decision — it keeps me more present at home and more focused when I need to do computer work. Anyway, yesterday and today I didn’t have a chance to blog on a computer and I’ve discovered that there is not an app for Blogger on mobile devices, so I finally found a way to type this on my tiny phone with my giant fingers on Safari. I can barely see what I’m doing, so please forgive me for even more typos than usual!
Some of my readers know that I’m currently working full time as a public school music teacher. My undergraduate degree is in music education and performance, but I didn’t decide to teach in the public school system until a few years ago. Since that time, I’ve been teaching on a temporary teaching permit while finishing up the credential program for my state licensure, and it’s been a long and trying process to say the least. But now that’s it’s finally nearing its end (I jumped the last major hurdle yesterday), I can already see some of the silver lining on some of those cloudy moments in the journey.
It’s so, so hard for me in moments of difficulty to really trust that God has a reason for the trials in my life, even though in the end I always see God’s faithfulness. Sometimes there are people and situations that inadvertently do us harm, and other times it is deliberate. It seems hard to imagine that God could be present in those moments, or even allow those difficulties for a greater good or for some ultimate purpose.
I think of the story of Joseph in the Old Testament. Dude was having a really rough time — if memory serves, it was his own brothers who had dumped him into a cistern and then sold him into slavery. Not cool at all. In time, the brothers found Joseph who, instead of giving them a piece of his mind for how they’d treated him, told them, “Even though you meant to harm me, God meant it for good” (Genesis 50:20). Instead of holding their horrific behavior against them, Joseph forgave his brothers by seeing the situation through the eyes of faith, a perspective that actually made him even grateful for the good God had brought about through a very bad situation.
This week, I will focus more on seeing difficult situations through the eyes of faith, and in being grateful to God in all circumstances even when I can’t see the good that may come from my present trials or adversities. I will thank God for all the good things He has done for me, and when others wrong me (inadvertently or deliberately), I will be quicker to forgive them and to thank God for whatever end He may have in mind from that particular difficulty.
As always, thanks for stopping by and be assured of my prayers.
Peace and all good,
Leslie
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