God's Timing

   What might of been considered embarrassing to the unspiritual eye or frustrating to the spiritual one is my recent quest for a job. I had been applying for jobs probably since the end of March, in total probably 30+ jobs. It took until mid-June until I finally got one, the perfect one, in God's perfect timing.

    The job I had asked God about, the one I asked him to lead me too. A prayer that went something like this: "God, you know what's best for me, I want to live where you want me too, and do whatever you want me to do this summer. Help me find whatever job you want me to do this summer." He was faithful, and he did answer. Sometimes he doesn't answer right away, and sends us on a quest to gain knowledge. For me the quest was to find the job that God had handpicked for me.

     Did God want me at a job that would be different then what I was going to school for? Did he want me to be work in retail, in a restaurant, as a cleaner, as a painter, or with typically developing kids? Or was I supposed to do something more of what I felt God calling me to for the future.

   Some of you guys know the result of these questions. It turned out God wanted me at the job that most reflected what I felt I was called to do in the future. Working with kids with autism at their homes, teaching them behavioral, as well as skills for living. A job where both of us are taught new things. I found out today (my first day at the job) that a lot of people I work with have actually gotten their Bachelor's in Psychology, which is another example of God's timing.

    At Parkside I thought I wanted to go for getting a Bachelor in Special Education, but was lost when I found out they hadn't added the program, and wouldn't be until 2018. I didn't think that God would be calling me away from the Kenosha/Racine area so I felt really stuck. Maybe God hadn't called me to do work with kids with disabilities afterall. I frantically searched for a major that might fit me, even going as far as taking career tests, as suggested by some counseling ladies at Parkside. The only thing the tests showed me is that I was meant to work at a job that helped people. I talked to the Education department, which redirected me to the Psychology department, where the Psychology program lead thought that Psychology would be a fitting major for me, as the paragraph states above it must be. God knew, and he craftily redirected me in the right direction.
    
     Another example of God's timing in my life was finding housing for the summer. In about Mid-April I started looking for somewhere to be able to stay over the summer, my church is very hospitable and help house a lot of people in their 20's. I asked the leaders of the church and multiple families, seeming to be out of luck. I even got my new job before finding summer housing, which was very worrisome. I didn't find summer housing until the day before my first day at my new job. I found housing (Thursday). The confirmation for the summer housing actually came after a prayer session over the phone with a friend. As you can tell it was a worrisome week, not being sure if I'd find a place to stay by the time my job started, just trusting God would do it. (My home in which I've been staying is an 1 hour and a half away from where I'd be working, and there was no way I was going to make that drive twice a day.) He made sure of it, testing the depth of my trust for him, and my patience for his timing.

   At the end of the school year I was almost convinced that God might want me to stay at my parent's house in Slinger for the whole summer. But of course he had other plans, and in my heart I knew my stay in Slinger in the summer would be "very" temporary. It was only lasting a total of  17 days with 5 visits to Racine/Kenosha, so I wasn't even home all 17 days. My stay was great, and I'm glad God added being home to the process. I was ready to move from one house to another if the opportunity presented itself, not moving all my things home. Being home allowed me to have some much needed family time, as well as the joy of watching my parent's new puppy (black lab), Drake grow up. They picked him up four days before I came home. I think he's now about 10 weeks old. I will definitely miss being home. I feel kind of torn wanting to be in both places, which is a good problem to have, but I know my time will be more fulfilled in living in Racine, and of course there will be visits home to Slinger, and visits from them in Racine so feeling torn won't be that big of a deal.

   God has a timing for everything, we just need to be patient, and have faith. It can be a bit of a struggle but it's definitely worth it.

Labels

      Who are you? What defines you? To help answer these questions our society uses labels. But labels aren't always helpful, making people have a preconceived idea of who you are, by what the label means to them. Humans are complex, and there's no way one simple label can help define them, even multiple labels. Some labels feel nice, well others may hurt.
       
         I've been thinking about labels for awhile, and there's one for me that always seem to sting, and that I don't want to define me. That is the label of (quiet/shy/reserved/or introvert). After being seen as the quiet child most of my life, I have made it a personal mission to be more than that. To be a person people get to know, not the quiet reserved girl people have labeled me to be. After making this my mission I have come a long way. I love spending time with people, and talking with them, and for the most part it comes easy. This is why while trying so hard to be this way, and someone then saying "Wow your quiet." It fells like a stab. Like I've taken steps back. Like my progress hasn't been seen.

      In high school it was hard to be anything but your labels, because most people didn't care enough to get to know the real you, but just what you were labeled as. When you're labeled as something for so long, you become to believe it defines you. Luckily going off to college gave me a new beginning, and I was able to start being who I truly was. With a couple slip ups in the beginning with trying to fit in. The school I went to through my church was even more helpful in walking and discovering my true identity as a child of god. This is the only label that matters and is 100 percent true. None of the other things you can be labeled matter, because you can't put a label on God's creation, one that is fitting enough, one that can be described with human words.