Good Afternoon everyone!

I hope ya’ll have had a great weekend and it is smoothly coming to an end. I just wanted to share with you some things that have happened to me recently and a quick update. So I am still working on my ‘Theme and Variations’ piece as we speak (obviously, took a break to post what was on my heart) and I’m almost done with about 2 variations and it looks like I will have about 8 variations total, according to my quick outline I made for myself. I haven’t decided yet if I will give quick clips of what I have, but we shall see haha.

So the past couple of weekends, I’ve been busy helping to work an open house for Duke and a conference. This past weekend was a conference for the International Center for Service-Learning in Teacher Education. So people from all over the world came to present and discuss about what kinds of strategies and techniques they use at their institutions. It was a great way to get little snippets or large chunks of big ideas to help advance the education for upcoming teachers and students in general of all ages.

Well during this weekend, I got a lot of encouragement from many people, directly and indirectly, in education and in life. As a volunteer, I had to sit in different workshops to make sure the presenters had everything they needed and to help out or fix any technical difficulties they had. In one particular workshop, I was given a card, along with the participants,  that had a quote on it. The activity was to go up to someone you did not know and share quotes. If moved, you could ask to switch cards with the other person. I ended up switching to a card that had the quote:

“I haven’t failed, I’ve found 10,000 ways that don’t work.” -Thomas Alva Edison, Inventor

Instantly that quote hit me right between the eyes. Everyone hits bumps in the road. But you don’t stop. You learn from that and keep truckin’! Think about if this guy just stopped because something did not work the first few times he tried. Yep, we’d be sittin’ in the dark! HAHA!

After the whole conference was over yesterday, I got a chance to catch up with a good friend of mine. We sat at the Loop on campus, and we must have talked for like 2.3 hours. She is a devout Christian woman and a GREAT listener (I tend to talk people’s ears off :P). She also gave me encouragement to continue to pursue Jesus in all I do because He never leads you astray. I really appreciate her kindness and generosity she has always given me for the last couple of years! Thank the Lord for friends like her!

Even this morning when I had to teach Sunday School to my 3-4 year olds at church, I got some encouragement. I was telling them the story about Abram (in his older years, the Lord changed his name to Abraham meaning ‘father of many nations’) and his wife Sarah. They were told to leave all that was familiar (comfort zone) and travel to another place called Canaan. God promised them a great nation. Long story short, they got there, God blessed them with a child (Isaac), despite their old age (Abraham was 100 when Isaac was born). This story starts at the beginning of Genesis 12. Throughout the rest of the book, Abraham is tested again and again (especially in Chapter 22 with Isaac). As I am giving them the summary of the long story, it struck me hard, even though I was the one doing the teaching. Main idea is GOD KEEPS HIS PROMISES. He promises all of us a wonderful life if we trust Him. And nobody is perfect! Abraham did not always respond with trust and obedience, but God’s continuing mercy, despite Abraham’s failures, caused Abraham to grow in faith and trust in God. Nothing is different for us. We all have this same opportunity! We are all children of God and He loves us all the same!

So if God gives you an opportunity or puts someone in your life, don’t give up on that something or that special someone. It’s not a coincidence. He has promised you something and He always keeps His promises. Our job is to trust Him. Simple as that. Is it easy? Psshh, absolutely not. It’s not suppose to be. This is what builds our spiritual strength and faith. But think about it: The things in life that are worth it, are they easy to come by? Or do we have to work hard to earn them?

Until next time,

May God Bless You and Keep You!!

1 Corinthians 13:7 (one of my favs), Hebrews 11:8-12, Romans 12:12

Advertisement