She smiles at the time to come...

The thing I like about New Years is the time to reflect on all God has done over the last year.  This New Years Eve I was blessed to spend it making a sort of scrapbook banner of the year.  It was so sweet to see the Lord's faithfulness throughout the whole year.  You know what was so sweet about the whole thing; as I was making this banner, looking at all the pictures, writing out some of the specific verses from scripture that have really stuck out to me this year, all the sudden I was seriously overlwhelmed at God's faithfulness and His goodness.  I wrote in my last blog post about how my first semester at TMC wasn't what I expected, which is true, but you know what God has really blessed me in incredible ways that I wouldn't have imagined.  So I was working on my little project I was so thankful to the Lord for this last year.  For all the bumps in the road, the joys, and the new experiences.  For the Fall semester I was specifically thankful for Outreach Week, being able to study in depth the Proverbs 31 passage in my Home Ec class, and for the sweet girls God has brought into my life as friends.  It's so amazing how taking a moment to reflect on the year can change your perspective on things, because you see God at work.  It was such a gift from the Lord!

I'm getting all ready to go back to school a week from tomorrow for the spring semester.  Making packets of home made instant oatmeal, home made trail mix, ordering my books, and buying school supplies.  As I do all that I'm also thinking and praying about goals/things to work on with dependence on God's grace for the semester.  I know for certain one of them is thankfulness.  Looking back on last semester and even being home I see how much I can complain, and not merely in a verbal sense but in my heart.  It's my prayer for the semester that I purpose to be thankful, but that it is a genuine thankfulness to the Lord, not a stoic "I need to be thankful" attitude that really isn't genuine so really is pointless in the end.  I know that this takes dependence on God's grace, because it's so easy to either complain or take the stoic, legalistic, completely unheartfelt approach to thankfulness.  But as Carolyn Mahaney says, "grace is power, not just pardon." So praise the Lord that He has given me His Spirit, and power through His grace! One thing I did to work on this practically is I made a "thankfulness jar", to put scripture verses, and things I'm thankful for in when I'm tempted to grumble, and to look through in times of discouragement. 

My other goal for the semester is to get more involved at PBC.  And what's so amazing about that is over break I've had contact with a few people from there and God is already answering that prayer! So I'm excited to see what this next semester will hold! One thing that has really stuck with me from my Home Ec class about the Proverbs 31 woman is in verse 25 it says, "she laughs at the time to come" (or some translations say "she smiles at the time to come").  I learned from that class that what it means is that she is not afraid of the future.  She can smile at the future, because she is prepared, but ultimately because she trusts in her God.  That verse challenges me often, and I praise the Lord for His living active Word, because sometimes its hard to smile at the future right? My prayer is that by God's grace I'll be reminded of that verse often and that I will smile at the future, at this upcoming semester, preparing myself for it in the ways that I should, but not having a bunch of expectations of exactly what it will be like, instead trusting in the Lord because He is good! He keeps reminding me of that! He is good, and His ways, His plans (not mine), are PERFECT.  Praise Him that He is the all wise sovereign God, and that He is our patient, loving, heavenly Father. 

Stay encouraged!

Joyfully,

Willa