Ever get the feeling that God is playing hide-and-seek with your life...purposefully keeping you in the dark about which road to take and which choice to make? If you are like me, you directly find yourself in the situation of crying out, "Speak to me, God. Email me. Message me. Tell me WHAT I should do here!"
We scramble for different verses in the Bible in hope of a little comfort from the promises that He DOES indeed hear us and WILL answer us, but yet we are still meandering through life, lamenting our situation, wishing for direction and waiting for clear, direct and immediate answers for our questions.
The truth of the matter is, most times God is speaking to us. Slowly, quietly, and little-by-little in that "still, small, voice"....I'm simply too busy running MY life, and fulfilling MY desires to even hear his voice. Still I cry out for direction, for an answer, and get frustrated when I don't seam to get a response!
Over the past two weeks, I have been challenged with this. Am I REALLY listening? God speaks to us through different things, but unless my life is being completely controlled by the remote in God's hands, I will easily confuse His voice with the voice of my flesh. It doesn't matter what I think is good and right, or what I think sounds like a sensible and honorable decision, at the end of the day, all that matters is obedience.
Each choice I make, will greatly affect my destiny, weather I think it is important or not. Why do I only consult Him with the "major" decisions and then simply fly through my daily routine, basing all my "small" decisions on my desires?
On October 31, 1983, Korean Airlines flight 007 departed from Anchorage, Alaska, for a direct flight to Seoul, Korea. Unknown to the crew, however, the computer engaging the flight navigation system contained a one-and-a-half-degree routing error. At the point of departure, the mistake was unnoticeable. One hundred miles out, the deviation was still so small as to be undetectable. But as the giant 747 continued out over the Pacific, the plane strayed increasingly from its proper course. Eventually it was flying over Soviet airspace. Soviet radar picked up the error, and fighter jets scrambled into the air to intercept. Over mainland Russia the jets shot flight 007 out of the sky, and all on board lost their lives.
God is reaching out from heaven to you and me today and offering His divine wisdom to guide your and my life to success and fulfillment. He is speaking to us through the people around us, through His Spirit, through His word, with a still small voice. Am I taking the time to listen and accept His navigational directions that He has all mapped out for me? Or am I rapidly making decisions for myself yet occasionally consulting Him for those "big, life-changing" decisions? And when I don't get an immediate, booming answer, just go by what I think is wise? Each choice I make every day, whether it seams big or not, WILL effect my destiny. Am I making God-honoring decisions? Am I living a purposeful life?
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Just the thought that we are beginning the 10th week of school and there is only 6 weeks until Christmas break is mind boggling! Where is time going? Is there really a whole 24 hours in a day? There are some days I wonder if the clock hasn't simply jumped a few hours ahead. But then their are those times, during those 30 minutes of explaining and re-explaining that difficult concept, to your thoroughly confused little first grader, using every single bit of possible creative inspiration you can find, and still have them look at you with that "blank stare". It is these moments that I feel the clock has simply stopped and those 30 minutes seam to be forever and an age!
Nonetheless, my life on this little island, continues at a high rate of speed with lots of excitement each day! I guess that's the joy of life as a missionary! You just never know what all you will be doing in a weeks time!
Last Friday was Thanksgiving day for us. So two days off school was a readily welcomed thing for me! :) After realizing that my students never heard the "First Thanksgiving" story, and really didn't know much about this well-known holiday, I decided to spend most of last Wednesday doing different projects and fun things to help them understand where Thanksgiving day originated and why we celebrate it.
They were very pleased with their paper pilgrim hats. This picture explains my students very well. We have Cyle (to the far right) making one of his many strange faces and simply being silly. Next to him is Jamal, giving me that warming smile that shows how pleased he is with his recent accomplishment. Beside Jamal is Renel, who really is having a grand time with the rest of us, but is always distracted by something or another. David is next with his little grin, just sweetly giving me his attention that I'm trying sooo hard to get from the rest of them! And there is Darrel, just kind of leaning in on the side for a few moments, pasting a grin on his face to please his teacher before running off to do something adventurous! (Rebekah is not pictured)
Cyle proudly proclaiming how many sets of matches he got in the memory game.
With the building project at our school this year, the play ground was off limits for quite a few weeks. It was just recently opened back up for us, and there are some pleased students AND teachers!
Kaylie gets ready to push Jayden on the swing.
Joshim posing with his creature he just caught.
Jaheem competing in a game of bite 'em.
I hope and pray you all have a wonderful week back in
the land of the cold! I really am not jealous! :)
Until next time, Janisa
