Thank God for Friday (TGFF)

Have you ever had one of those weeks? I’ve been fighting something that has invaded my respiratory system leaving me coughing, blowing my nose, and sleeping most hours of the day. From Saturday to Tuesday I think I slept more hours than I was awake, including through the Super Bowl, and still didn’t feel like it was enough. With the initiation of a round of antibiotics and the assistance of Dayquil, I returned to work on Wednesday. The rest of the week seemed to move in slow motion, I seemed to move in slow motion. I’d go to bed at 8:30-9pm, get up, go to work, come home, eat dinner, then back to bed. I was glad when Friday rolled around because that meant Saturday came next and I could sleep in as long as I wanted. God had plans for my Friday though, more than just another day to move through in slow motion, eagerly anticipating when I could return to my bed.

I truly love my job. I think that if you were to ask me when I was in school, what my ideal job would look like, it’d be the job I am working right now. As I’ve alluded to before, I’ve had a few (five total) knee surgeries during my soccer career. With each surgery, came a bout of physical therapy to make sure I was ready to return to my beloved sport. This naturally led to an interest in studying injuries and rehabilitation while trying to figure out my life’s course in college, which in turn, led me to physical therapy school after graduation. Now, in my life, I’ve always worked jobs that involved kids: baby-sitter, one-on-one caregiver in an elementary school, nanny, soccer coach, daycare employee, etc. So adding pediatric to my title as physical therapist wasn’t a huge stretch. The job I have now has even exceeded my expectations of what it means to be a pediatric physical therapist.  I get to work with young athletes to ensure they are ready to get back to competition after an injury, I get to snuggle babies on an almost daily basis, I get to put on my imagination hat and take magic carpet rides to the jungle so we can practice our animal poses, and I get to teach kids how to do things they’ve never been able to do before. Nothing compares to the joy and pride on their faces when they switch their focus from what they can’t do, to what they can do. Their whole lives, people have looked at them with pity, thinking about what a hard life they must have because of all the things they can’t or won’t be able to do. At my job, we get to show them all the things they can do or get to do that they never thought possible.  Their perseverance and hard work in the face of adversity is inspiring and an amazing blessing.

On this particular sleepy Friday, I was again reminded of why I love my job so much. I met a new patient who has very little verbal communication. While walking on the treadmill, I feel her hand sneak up behind me and land on top of my head.  I look and her lips are moving slightly. Her mother asks: “Are you praying for her?” I see an ever so slight nod and feel a smile come across my face. Here is a child who has difficulty communicating with the people around her, but no problem whatsoever communicating with God. And she choose to speak with God about me, a person she met just 10 minutes before. Later, I worked with someone who had been coming for a while. It was one of my last appointments of the day and I was feeling pretty tired. At the end of our time together we decided to try something different. I put her in a piece of equipment we have at the clinic, and for the first time in a long time, she walked! After her short walk was complete, she was smiling, mom was smiling, the interpreter was smiling, and I was smiling. I was so proud of her perseverance through pain and discomfort to accomplish something that was really difficult for her. It was such a cool moment.

I in no way have things all figured out, but here is what I learned from this week. We don’t always feel like doing what God has called us to do.  We may be tired, worn down, discouraged, feeling inadequate, or intimidated by the weight of what God is calling us to do. But God will never call us to something he won’t give us strength to complete. There are times where we need to take time to prepare for the call.  For me that included going to school and learning about how to be a physical therapist.  There will be times when we need to rest and let our bodies and souls rejuvenate for a time so we are better able to complete the work, like my four day sleep fest to get over whatever crazy bug infected me. Then there is a time for the resting period to be over and we need to get back whatever the call may be. Even if when it’s difficult, God will provide the strength we need and bless our obedience, re-energizing us at exactly the right time. He is so good.

What is God calling you to do?  Will you take a step of faith?

“There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.” ~1 Corinthians 12:4,5

Blessings in Disguise

Sometimes our everyday blessings arrive in packages that we don’t recognize. Those types of blessings often take the form of heartache, disappointment, and pain. Laura Story has written song called “Blessings” that if you haven’t heard before, I encourage you to find it and really listen to it. The chorus says: “What if your blessings come through raindrops? What if your healing comes through tears? What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know you’re near? What if trials of this life, are your mercies in disguise?” I have experienced many blessings that felt more like trials and heartbreak while going through them. But it was through those events that God revealed part of his character and the love he has for me that shaped me into the person I am today. Here is one example:

Everyone says that college is the best four years of your life. As a new high school graduate, I eagerly anticipated what the next four years of my life would bring, envisioning late night escapades every night with the hundreds of friends I was bound to make, romantic rendezvous in the gazebos scattered about campus to escape the light drizzle of rain falling from the sky, leading my team to play-offs while setting records for goals scored while earning MVP, dazzling my classmates with brilliant insights into the history and literature we would study, and playing on a soccer team with Christians who shared my passion for playing for an audience of one. In high school, I had the late night adventures with my friends, my fair share of romantic kisses in the rain, scored a number of goals for the soccer teams I played for, and gave a graduation speech at commencement that dazzled my classmates with my brilliance (not really, but let’s just go with it) so I thought if college is the epitome of happiness and adventure all of those experiences would be multiplied by 10 when I got there. I chose my particular college because I wanted to play on a Division I soccer team at a Christian school. My teammates on my high school and club teams were fantastic girls, but we shared different values and I usually felt like an outsider.  I thought that by choosing a Christian school, it would be different.  We would all be like-minded, build each other up, and play for the glory of God. I was excited for this new experience couldn't wait for the best four years of my life to begin.

           

Once preseason started my Freshmen year, it was clear that my experience was going to be different from what I envisioned. There were other Christians on the team so I wasn’t the only one, but I was made fun of and ostracized for my beliefs to a further degree than what I experienced on my high school and club teams growing up by a large group of my teammates. I was left out of parties and social gatherings, belittled in front of my teammates and other athletes, and gossiped about behind my back. To compound the problem, soccer and schoolwork consumed my entire life. If I wasn’t at practice, I was studying, if I wasn’t studying, I was traveling to a game, if we weren’t traveling I had a lab I had to make up. There wasn’t a lot of time to make friends outside of the team. Further blows to my ego came in the male department. I had a few male acquaintances from my classes or on the guys’ soccer team, but a lot of them wouldn’t give me the time of day unless I was with someone they wanted to talk to. There were instances where I would smile and try to say hello after making eye contact, and they would look away, pretending not to see me at all. The self confidence and self esteem I’d prided myself on in high school, slowly disappeared until I was afraid to say anything at all when there were more than a few people present. This made my brilliant revelations to classmates difficult and it was a rare occasion that I would share my thoughts in class at all. My dreams of what college would be like slowly began to crumble leaving behind heartache and disappointment. I was hurt, confused, and often questioned my choice in schools.  I considered transferring numerous times and after one night in particular, began filling out an application to a different school. However, through it all, I felt God telling me to stay.

           

Though the first couple years of school were different than what I envisioned, God proved his faithfulness to me over and over.  I had a couple close friends that were a continual source of love and encouragement, people God sent as a life preserver to keep me from drowning during a difficult time. I eventually connected with FCA on campus, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and found a group of people that shared my desire to display their gifts and talents for the glory of God.  I became involved with leadership, started leading worship during our meetings, and openly spoke and shared about my faith in a larger group setting. With the love and support of choice people God placed in my life, I decided to stay at the school. Even though it was difficult, I felt that it was where God wanted me to be, so I decided to come back for my Junior year, hoping that it would be different, trying to trust that God knew what was best.

           

Here is where God revealed one of the greatest blessings in disguise. It came in the form of a knee surgery the summer before preseason my Junior year. This was knee surgery number four making me a surgery veteran, but I was devastated by the timing.  We were getting a new soccer coach and I was excited about the upcoming season. My Freshmen year, I was an intermittent starter and if I didn’t start, was usually one of the first people off the bench. My Sophomore year that changed, my touch was off and I was getting less and less playing time. The decreased confidence in other areas of my life, manifest itself on the field.  The current coach’s style of coaching only compounded my confidence problem. He liked to point out mistakes in front of everyone and usually in not so nice terms. I was ready for a fresh start with a new coach after a summer of hard work to prepare for the season, but God had other plans. After the knee surgery, I red-shirted and diligently completed my rehab throughout the season.  I also took it upon myself to make sure my teammates had a different experience than I did. My new role was encourager and team builder. By taking my soccer performance out of the equation, I could focus on the people on the team, including those who were previously less than accepting of me when I first arrived. God taught me a lot about forgiveness and accepting his grace as sufficient, no matter what the circumstance. He taught me to love and pray for those who persecute me because it’s not my place to judge what they are doing when I may not understand why they are doing it. Their actions may not have had anything to do with me; I was just an easy target at the time. I was given a new perspective and a new purpose for my what my college experience would look like.  I started a team Bible study that steadily grew in numbers as well as depth of relationships.

            

While I never set records for number of goals scored, I found a greater purpose by investing in the people God placed on my team.  Even though I never experienced those romantic rendezvous in the gazeboes, I learned to trust God in all my relationships and in every circumstance. He did bless me with late night adventures with friends and memories that will last a lifetime, just on a smaller scale than I originally envisioned.  He turned my disappointment and heartache into something beyond what I could have hoped or imagined after graduating high school, and looking back now, I wouldn’t have changed a thing. College may not have been the best four years of my life, but I now have hope that the best is yet to come.

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing on your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” ~James 1:2-4

Is there a blessing you are having a hard time recognizing in your life? Pray about it. Pray for a new perspective and strength in the mean time.  You can also share it with me and I’ll pray for you as well.  Praying is one of my favorite things J Have a blessed day!!

Still Small Voice...

Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night because of a dream about a random person you haven't spoken with since junior high? Or have your thoughts ever wandered to a person you haven't seen in years as you drive along on your way to work? Or maybe something on TV reminds you of a person you know, or a sign on a billboard, or the time of day (11:11 always reminds me of my college roommate because we'd always make a wish when the clock struck 11:11.) I believe there are more to these random thoughts than just a fleeting memory of a person from the past.  I believe they are a call to prayer and sometimes action.  My story today has two parts: a) the reason I started praying for the "random" people that popped into my head, and b) the most recent confirmation to continue the practice.

Story A: My Mom has always been a prayer warrior. Her answer to every problem was first, lets pray about it, second lets talk about it, and third lets pray about it again. I knew that she prayed continually for my family, friends, and whatever random people happened to come to mind. There was one night in particular where she woke up feeling the need to pray for my soccer coach. The feeling was persistent and wouldn't allow her to return to sleep, so she prayed, a lot. She didn't know what she was praying for, but that didn't stop her, she continued to pray. The next time she saw my coach, she mentioned that she had been praying for her and if there was anything she needed to let her know. Not too long after that encounter, she received a letter from my coach saying the night my mom had been praying, she was planning to commit suicide, but for some reason didn't follow through with it. God knew her pain, what she was struggling with, and cared enough to alert my Mom that one of his children needed her prayers. Ever since that day, I don't believe in random dreams, thoughts, or reminders of people. I view these encounters as a commission to pray.

Story B: I'm usually pretty obedient about praying for the people God places on my heart, but am less obedient about letting the person know I am praying for them. There have been a few people I'll send a quick Facebook message to let them know I am praying, but I don't do it consistently. I figure the kid from junior high will probably think I am a creepy stalker because I haven't seen or talked to him since graduating 8th grade so why am I contacting him now? But in the past month, God showed me what I could be missing out on by postponing a note of encouragement.

In April of this year, I was completing a physical therapy internship near Detroit, MI. On the weekends, I would go to a coffee shop to spend some time reading my Bible and writing in my prayer journal. On this particular day, a good friend from college that I had lost touch with had been laid on my heart. The week before he'd randomly shown up in a dream, I heard a song we used to listen to all the time, and his status updates were frequently on my newsfeed. So in that coffee shop, I felt God leading me to pray for him. So I did. Throughout the Spring and Summer, now back in Minnesota, similar things would happen. There is a rug store that I'd drive past every day on my way to work that shares him name, and God would tell me to pray. I'd be playing soccer with a bunch of people and God would tell me to pray. I even ran into a mutual acquaintance in an unexpected place and God told me to pray. Before long the still small voice of God telling me to pray, changed to, tell him you are praying.

Throughout the summer and fall the reminders to pray continued, always followed by and tell him you are praying. They usually came while I was driving so I'd make a mental note to send a message when I got home. Unfortunately, mental notes are often erased from my head, so the message was never sent. It wasn't until one Saturday in Decemember after a coffee and quiet time session that I obeyed the still small voice and sent a note to my friend, letting him know I was praying. I received a return message the next day and after a fun game of telephone tag, we were able to connect and catch up on life. It turns out, around April, he felt God was calling him to take time away from grad school for something different. That something has since evolved into an indefinite trip through Central and South America, encouraging people to think, experience, connect, inspire, and become what it means to be human. He and two friends are searching for people, organizations, and ministries around the world that are using their unique gifts and talents to work toward the good of humanity and encouraging people they meet to think and share about what it means to be human. They've launch a website that will serve as a medium for global conversation on what it means to human and a challenge to work for good wherever you are, using whatever passion God has laid on your heart. It's called "Become a Human" project. I encourage you to take a look for yourself:

www.becomeahuman.org

I would also encourage you not to ignore the "random" people God places on your heart. If dinner happens to be your friend's favorite food, bringing them to mind, say a prayer for them. If you see a car that's the same as someone you know, say a prayer. If you happen to stumble onto old pictures while cleaning out your closet of people you've since lost touch with, say a prayer. And if the still small voice of God tells you to let them know you are praying for them, do it immediately. You never know what someone is going through. You may be just the encouragement they need or they may have just the blessing you've been waiting for.

Happy New Year and have a fabulous day!!

The Best Way to Spread Christmas Cheer...

Many of you may have seen the movie Elf in which Will Ferrell plays a human who is raised by elves at the North Pole. He makes the trek from the North Pole (passing through the seven levels of the candy cane forest, through the sea of wurly, twirly gumdrops, and through the Lincoln tunnel) to search for his real father, who is on the naughty list. This is one of my favorite holiday movies. One of his classic sayings is, "The best way to spread Christmas cheer, is singing loud for all to hear." I can totally relate to this one. For those of you who don't know me well, I love music and I love to sing. I often have soundtracks playing in my head that I will sing along to, out loud. I think this is a genetic trait I inherited from my grandma, and she is what this story is really about.

My grandma started developing early signs of dementia a few years ago. In fact, she told her friends that when she traveled down to Nashville for my college graduation, she was going for my wedding. I hope she wasn't disappointed by my ugly black dress. The summer after my graduation, she fell and broke her hip.  After that, her and my grandpa moved from assisted living into a nursing home as his health was also declining. Through the grace of God, they were able to get a room together. My grandma would give us a tour of her one room house every time we would visit for the next couple years. She would often comment that it was small, but she knew her mansion was waiting for her in heaven.

I was fortunate in that, during physical therapy school, one of our internships was working at a nursing home down the street from where my grandparents lived.  I was able to pop over for a lunch visit every so often. Every time I came, my grandparents would think I was someone else.  One time I was my mom, one time I was my grandma's second cousin, and one time I was staff.  Although in all fairness, I was wearing the classic PT uniform of a polo, khakis and my name tag. No matter who she thought I was, whether it be family or a random stranger coming for a visit, she would make me feel welcome and without fail provide some type of serenade. She always sang, to everyone and anyone. If there was no one around she would hum pleasantly to herself. It was beautiful.

When my grandma was younger, she studied music and was an accomplished pianist. For years, she served as the piano accompanist at church. She taught me how to play Hot Cross Buns, Mary Had a Little Lamb, and Heart and Soul on the piano in her condo. Heart and Soul was my favorite because it was a duet and she would do cool embellishments when we would play together so it would sound so pretty. When my grandparents moved from their assisted living apartment into the nursing home, they gave my parents the piano. One recent Christmas, my grandparents were able to come to my parents house for a few hours to celebrate with the entire family. My grandma didn't remember everyone's name but she remembered how to play the piano. We all stood around the piano singing Christmas carols while she played, her arthritic fingers moving gracefully to hit each note with precision. It was an experience I will never forget.

My grandma passed away in August and this will be the first Christmas we celebrate without her.  Even though she is not here to sing her favorite Christmas songs, she lives on in the carols we sing at church, the piano at my parents house, and the decorated Christmas cookies that she could never pass up. God sends people into our lives to shape us into the people we are to become. Even though my grandma had a hard time keeping track of who we were most of the time, she never lost her sweet nature or her song. Her unconditional joy and the music she loved to share was a constant reminder of the great God we serve. This year, she gets to spend Christmas with her savior, in the mansion he prepared for her.  I know he'll love her serenades as much as I did.

As we near Christmas, take a moment to honor and remember the people God has placed in your life. If they're still around, tell them how much you love them. If they aren't, treasure the moments you shared and let God use that memory to show you how much he loves you.

Have a fantastic day!

Happily ever after...

Since I was a little girl I loved to read.  I used to take books up in to the tree in my front yard or find a comfy chair and sit for hours reading anything I could get my hands on. I loved adventure stories like the Chronicles of Narnia, epic love stories like the Anne of Green Gables, and other series like the Boxcar Children and the Babysitters’ Club. My someday dream is to have a library filled with wall to wall books, complete with a window seat where I could curl up with hot cocoa and get lost in a different world. The stories found in books are a way to transport us to a different place and look at the world through someone else’s eyes, learning from their experiences in a fun and entertaining way.

I share my love of books with you to help explain why I look for God in the stories that happen in real life. Whenever Jesus taught he used parables or stories to illustrate what he was teaching. Only those who were willing to truly listen were able to glean the message Christ was teaching.  God speaks to us the same way today. The message of his hope and love are found in books, movies, and the stories we share with friends over coffee. 

I recently watched a cheesy Lifetime Christmas movie as a way to get in the Christmas mood while cleaning my room. The story was about a girl who left her fiance at the alter 12 years earlier to pursue a career in New York City. She was now a lonely corporate success spending Christmas alone in her penthouse, wishing on a Christmas star that she could go back and make things right. I won't ruin the movie for you by giving everything away, but I could see God's message of love and redemption woven throughout the tale and I want to share with you some of what I saw.

The main character ran away from her love in pursuit of something she thought would make her happy. So often we do the same thing when it comes to God. His love is constant and unconditional, but we see it as restricting or difficult to understand, so we chase after something that we think is better.  And at first, it may be. But the more we chase after things that aren't God, the more empty we feel. God's love is the only thing that truly sets us free and fulfills the longing in our hearts.

Our heroine was given a second chance at what she lost by a Christmas angel, allowing her to go back in time to the week before she left her fiance at the altar. I've personally never gone back in time or been able to take back the mistakes I've made in my life.  But what I felt God telling me through this storyline, was that he gives us second chances.  In real life, we can never go back to change our decisions or the consequences of our actions, but because Christ died for us, we are redeemed from our sin. His grace covers over our mistakes, giving us a second chance to make the right decision the next time we are faced with a similar circumstance. He also gives us the strength to make things right with those we've hurt by our poor choices. He gives us the courage we need to face our sin and the consequences of it so that we can live a life that is free and redeemed.

As with every romantic comedy known to man, there is of course a happy ending. I believe there is an innate desire within us  that everything work out right in the end. We want this in our books and movies as well as in our real lives. However, we live in a fallen world and its been my experience that one imperfect person plus another imperfect person does not equal a perfect relationship whether it be romantic, platonic, or family. We all make mistakes that affect the people around us and threaten our happily ever after. But here's the good news.  We already have a happily ever after.  When Christ died for our sins on the cross, he wrote the ending so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but will have everlasting life (according to John 3:16).  And 2 Corinthians 4:17,18 says: "For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." If we step back and look through an eternal perspective, we have our happy ending through Christ, everything else is just part of the story line, filled with trials and conflict and heartache and pain that leads up to that happy ending. 


As Christmas approaches, I would encourage you to look around at the everyday occurrences through an eternal perspective. We already know the end, but what can we learn along the journey? How can we share our journey with others so that they too may know the love and hope in Jesus Christ? What is God trying to say through the stories of everyday life? Are you listening?


I hope you have a wonderful day!

Into Africa...

            In January of last year, I had an incredible opportunity to travel to Niger, Africa with some people from my physical therapy program at the University of Minnesota.  During this trip, I learned a lot about the faithfulness of God and his work around the world.  It was also there that I had my first blog experience, writing with my classmates about our experiences. There are many stories about God’s faithfulness that stem from this trip that I would like to share in the days to come but I think its best to start at the very beginning, because how God lead me to Niger is a story in itself.

            Part of the reason I chose to go to the University of Minnesota’s physical therapy program was because of their international opportunities during the internship year. Because I played soccer in college, I wasn’t able to spend time studying abroad and thought PT school would be the perfect opportunity to experience life outside of the US. As the application date for the international internships drew closer, I had my heart set on one internship in particular: Tanzania.  It was a 3-month experience working with kids in a local hospital.  I knew that when I graduated from PT school, I would be working with kids in some capacity, so this internship was perfect. I met with one of the missionaries from church who happened to live in Tanzania but was back in the US for a family get-together, to learn all I could about the country and the work she was doing there. I was so excited and just knew that I would love this trip.

            When it came time to sit down and fill out the application, I had to put a first choice and second choice.  My first choice was Tanzania but I had a hard time deciding what my second choice would be.  The choices were Niger or Ecuador.  I was a Spanish minor in college and Ecuador required that you be fluent in Spanish. I was not fluent in Spanish despite my minor, but thought that if I needed to I could do some refresher courses and brush up on my vocabulary. Secretly, I wanted to put down Ecuador in the hopes that they didn’t think I was fluent enough and I would get Tanzania by default.  All I knew about the trip to Niger was that it involved wound care, which did not interest me at all. I prayed over my application and suddenly felt panicked that what if I didn’t get any at all because I had put Ecuador without being completely fluent in Spanish and someone else was more qualified for Tanzania. In addition, I was hesitant to change my preference from Ecuador to Niger because I had never heard of Niger before coming to PT school so how in the world could I say I would travel there? God lead me to read Joshua 1 before I made my final decision. Verse 9 was particularly helpful:

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified, do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” ~Joshua 1:9

             With that, I felt a peace about putting Niger as my second choice instead of Ecuador, even though it was scary and unknown. I don’t think this was an accident, I truly believe that God chose me to go to Niger.  When we found out the international placements and I was chosen for Niger instead of Tanzania I was really disappointed. But in the months leading up to the trip, my time in Niger, and the time since I’ve returned, God has shown me so much about who He is, what He is capable of doing, and how He is willing to use His children when they step out in faith. 

           

If you’d like to read about our trip, we’ve got pictures, videos, and stories on a blog we created for use during our time in Niger. You should check it out: http://umnniger2011.blogspot.com/

Have a fantastic day!!

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!