A Case of the Mondays

            Monday morning I woke in a bit of a panic.  I was asked to come in early for work to complete an evaluation.  I am a pediatric physical therapist and recently started a new job.  I’ve only completed one evaluation at this particular place of employment and was nervous about my early Monday morning evaluation.  The night before I set 2 alarms to make sure I was up on time and then continued to wake up throughout the early morning hours before my alarms were supposed to go off. When my alarm finally did go off, I noticed something wasn’t quite right. The clock showed I only had 15 minutes to shower and get ready before I needed to leave!!  I was thoroughly confused because I knew I had set my alarms for an hour earlier, but the clock doesn’t lie. I had 15 minutes to get ready for the day. I frantically jumped out of bed and ran to the coffeemaker because I knew I could not start Monday without my morning coffee.

            On my way to the kitchen I glanced in the living room and saw my roommate sleeping on the couch. I thought that was kind of weird because her bedroom was about two steps away.  And then I saw a guy sleeping along the other section of our couch. You see we have a roommate accountability clause that says if a guy spends the night, he must sleep on the couch or an air mattress in the living room, not in our bedrooms.  I appreciated that she followed the letter of the agreement but made a mental note to discuss the spirit of the agreement later.

            Once the coffee maker was going, I ran to the bathroom to take the fastest shower I have ever taken in my life.  Only, upon arriving in the bathroom, I discovered that the bathroom was flooded and my towels were spread all over the floor. I don’t remember leaving it that way the night before so I figure I must have done some sleep cleaning or something.  At this point I collapsed on the floor and had a good cry.

            The night before I had asked my roommate her favorite verse of the moment.  She shared Philippians 4:6,7 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ.” So as I cried, I repeated this verse over and over. The more I repeated it, the more peace I felt. Suddenly, my real alarm went off at the time I actually set it, and I began to laugh out loud.  It had all been a dream.

            I believe that God has a sense of humor. I mean, he could have just told me to relax, the evaluation would be fine and I was going to have a great Monday. Instead, he used a dream, a very real and vivid dream, to say, “Chill out little girl, I am in control.” The dream stuck with me through a very busy and stressful week at work and was a constant reminder that no matter what life throws at me, ultimately God is in control and promises to be with me through it all. For that, I am eternally grateful. Happy Thanksgiving weekend!

Winter Baby

God has laid this blog on my heart for awhile now.  I started getting the writing bug while blogging about my adventures in Niger, Africa earlier this year, but wasn't really sure what to write about once I was home. As the year progressed and I experienced many life changing things, the one thing that stayed constant through it all was God.  He kept reminding me of his faithfulness and love in the big and small everyday events of my life. I began to realize that this was what He wanted me to share with everyone.  He first wanted me to recognize His work through the big and small everyday blessings of my life, and the lives of those around me; and second to share those stories as a way to encourage whoever choses to read them. This first story is from a few years ago, but in honor of Minnesota's first snowfall this weekend, I decided to share it first.

            I am a winter baby. I was born in January so all of my birthday parties had an element of outdoor fun in the snow.  We went sledding and snow tubing.  We made snowmen, snow forts and snow angels.  We’d even celebrate with snowball fights in the backyard.  Thankfully, living in Minnesota means I get to experience nice, long winters with plenty of snow to enjoy.

            When I left home to go to college, I traded my Minnesota winters for the sweltering summers of Nashville, TN.  I played soccer in college, which meant I ran around a hot, humid field for hours every day. The first year away was tough on me.  I was far away from everything I knew, trying to keep up with the school work that continually piled up while traveling on road trips for soccer or training at all hours of the day in the off season.

            I remember one particularly hard week near the end of my first semester.  The soccer season was over, but the class work was most definitely not.  There were group projects and papers and journal entries due and of course, finals were right around the corner.  On top of all that, I was extremely homesick.  I had a hard time making friends my first semester because we were constantly traveling or training for soccer.  When I wasn’t playing soccer I was studying because I was crazy and took a full load of difficult classes right away. I missed my family and my friends at home.  In high school, I started keeping a prayer journal where I could share my worries, joys, concerns, and fun stories from my day with God.  During this particular week I sat on my bed, cried, a lot, and wrote down all the things I was feeling.  I wrote about missing my family, not being able to watch my brother and sister play sports, not hanging out for pizza and a movie night, and not being able to march upstairs to talk through problems with my parents. I missed my friends, pulling pranks on the boys, having 80’s movie marathons, and staying up talking till the early hours of the morning.  And then I wrote about how much I missed the snow.  I didn’t understand the point of cold weather without a fresh dusting of beautiful snow to make everything look new and fresh.

            The day after my tearful journal entry I woke up to find a wonderful surprise.  It was snowing in TN.  I was ecstatic. I practically danced around campus through the lightly dusted sidewalks while catching snowflakes on my tongue.  I ran into a friend from Mississippi in the cafeteria who didn’t share my sentiments about the change in weather and complained continually about the cold and snow. But even listening to his rant, I couldn’t help but smile.  I knew that this snow was God’s gift to me.  No matter where I went, who I left behind, or how hard life seemed, he was always there, eagerly awaiting the next opportunity to show me how much he loves me.

            One of the reasons I wanted to start this blog was because I often forget how faithful God is and how he shows up in the little and big things I experience. When I start seeing His gifts in my everyday life, I am blown away. He shows up when I need him, in big and small ways.  There are some ways that are blatantly obvious, marquee type events where there is no question God had a hand in making things work the way they did.  Then there are some ways that I have to look for or reflect on to understand that it was indeed God at work. I want to use this blog to share stories, big and small, of how God has worked and is working in my life. But I also want to share stories of how he is working in the lives of people I know or meet. Part of what I feel God is challenging me to do is get to know the people he has placed in my life. If you have a story to share, I want to sit down with you and listen to it.  Then if you are willing, I want to share it with others so that we can all be encouraged by the work God is doing in and through his people.

Have a wonderful day and be on the lookout for God at work in your life!