Scheduling next semester....

Well, I can't believe it, but I have nearly made it through my first semester at seminary. (if you don't count the summer classes!) It hasn't been at all easy, but God has been faithful. I have 14 hours now and by the end of next semester and J-term I will have 30. Halfway there!! It took me a while to decide my classes for next semester because I have to be very careful with my work schedule but I also need to take certain classes that are only offered every two years. So, since I want to be finished by May of '08, I can't miss classes that are offered this next spring, because they won't be offered again until the spring of '09. Does that make sense? So I think I have it worked out where I am only in class on Fridays and Saturdays. Yes, Saturdays! I switched a class that met on Weds (Basic Evangelism which I heard is hard and has lots of memorizing!) to Saturday morning. I didn't want to take a Saturday class because that completely shoots my weekend, but I know I needed to do that so I could sub on Wednesdays. So now I am available to sub four days a week instead of 3. More money. That helps. But it will be tough because I have more classes next semester: one online, two on Fridays, one on Saturdays, and the J-term class. OH, and I am taking a workshop for two hours elective credit over spring break. Yeah, I know. I have a boring life! It isn't like I would go anywhere or do anything anyway! I might as well suck it up and get it done!!

My professor yesterday (the last day of my Monday class!! YEAH!) was sharing with us about becoming licensed (LPC= licensed professional counselor) and he was sharing with us the test we will have to take if we do want to become licensed and how we have to have 3000 supervised hours in the state of MO to get a license. It seems hard. Then we have to have 40 hours every two years to renew our license. I am not honestly sure what God wants for me yet, but I am thinking it includes becoming an LPC. I have always thought I would work under the umbrella of a church when I am through with school, but I am not so sure now. I just don't really know what God has planned, but I know it is working with teen girls mainly and women in abusive situations. I have know for a while that God has sent me through some storms of life so I could help others and this is part of that grand plan. I just wish I could see around the corner of my life a little further and see exactly what God has planned. I guess I just have to wait and trust in Him....o.k.!

My prof was also talking about how much money we can expect to make if we have our own practice or work in a group practice. (Susan has mentioned to me before about "our" practice together! Sounds exciting!) The money seems good, and it was exciting for me to think about earning that much (way better than now!) but I really can't wrap my mind around that because I truly want to just help others. I know that sounds so superficial, but it is from my heart. I know I have to earn a living and I have to provide for my children, but it has never been about the money for me. It has never been about having a "master's degree" to me. I don't care about that. My daddy was the greatest preacher I ever knew and he only had a bachelor's degree. He was sold out for Christ and he loved the Lord with all his heart and it just was so obvious. You could see it by the "fruits" in his life. God took that simple man....uneducated...high school drop out, and made him something so wonderful. I still run into people who tell me how much my dad meant to them. That is so cool to me. He just glowed with his love for the Lord. He never lived in a big, fancy house. He never drove big, fancy cars. He never spoke with great eloquence. But his love was pure and his heart was so big. That is what I am looking for in a man. It is honestly something I have yet to find in anyone I have met......anyone single anyway! I just don't see it in most people. I took my kids to see the Nativity Story on Saturday. It was very good, by the way, but Mary said something about Joseph while he was sleeping that touched me. He had been walking and she had been riding the mule (on their way to Bethlehem) and here she was "betrothed" to Joseph, but she rarely knew him. But it didn't take him long to win her heart with his sweet and gentle love. One of the more tender moments in the movie was when she got a rag with water from the river and washed his feet as he slept. She was talking to Joseph in a quiet whisper and she said something along the lines of "what kind of man would always place others before himself?" This was the kind of man that God chose to raise His Son! It made me cry! It was the kind of father that God chose to give me, too! Praise the Lord! I was so blessed with a father that loved me so purely and showed me true and genuine love for Christ! I think about the man that God is preparing for me and my children. I know he must be very special. I think it takes someone so special to step in when there are children and a past like mine and still love unselfishly. Very few have that kind of love in their hearts. Honestly, I have noticed that most men (and women) want someone that can make them look good. I can't wait to look upon someone that God is preparing for me and whisper in my heart, "what kind of man that would love so unselfishly and place others before himself?" It gives me chills. God is preparing it even now for me. I believe that with all my heart. As my prof is always saying, "That is just God showing off again!" He does that when He loves us! And I have never known a love so true and pure, not even my daddy's, as my heavenly Father's love! Oh, amazing love, how can it be, that YOU my King would die for me?

During the Nativity Story movie, I was really in awe of a God that would leave the comforts of heaven and come to this cold, cruel earth to be beaten and rejected and crucified....for me. Incredible. I was also taught a great lesson during the film. I realized as I watched the wise men and the shepherds make the journey to worship the Baby in the manger, just how God deserves our worship. He sent these wisemen and shepherds hundreds of miles to bring gifts to this tiny Baby. How much more should I...whom He died for, be worshipping and praising Him! He is so deserving. And yet so many men and women go about their daily business day in and day out and never open their Bibles, never attend church, never seek the King of Kings and the ruler of all. It has to grieve His heart so much. It would be as if my children, once I raised them, loved them, cared for them, sacrificed for them their entire lives, left home when they turned 18 and never contacted me again. Oh, it would break my heart. It breaks my heart for my Savior. When will the world realize that it needs Jesus? Oh that I may be a witness for Him!

Well, I need to study for my test and for my presentation I am doing on Sunday to the youth at Brookfield. I am so excited to see them. I have to do this for my Secular Humanism class, but I am very excited about it. I am excited to teach them some great truths found in God's word and I am excited to hug them all!