This September I began teaching at an elementary school. It's a really hard job. I could see that it was a hard job while I was student teaching, but it's beyond what I had imagined. It is the most difficult and challenging job that I have ever taken on. I may sound like a masochist, but at the same time I enjoy it in some weird way. It's not just that there are great kids because often they are very challenging, but it is because it is the job that God has given me and when you work hard and do your work as unto the Lord and not for man (in the Bible somewhere), it is rewarding and it gives you strength and resources that you didn't know you had. As well, God wired me to want work that challenged my mind and gave me opportunities to learn and grow. Teaching is a great job for just those reasons. A teacher NEVER really arrives at a point of having reached perfection or being a master teacher or something of that nature. You can always learn, you can always improve and any decent teacher knows that and knows that you must always reflect on your own work so you can continue to improve on it. I have oodles of room for improvement, but I kind of feel like I am holding my own.
Back to the God giving me strength and resources for teaching and life. First and foremost he gave me Nolan. I cannot express adequately how Nolan has been a source of strength, encouragement and restoration for me as I have begun teaching. Long hours and rebuilding the wheel is stressful and a new work location, new co-workers, a new home to unpack and settle into and a new marriage. There were many days I am sure I would have cried in exhaustion and frustration during the first month of my new work if it hadn't have been for the love of God and the love of my husband. I believe that right now I would have been a very discontent person and not very happy as a teacher and my life if it hadn't been for Nolan and his constant love and encouragment. He has given me strength, his love has restored me and allowed me to face another day and all that comes with it. Now I know that this may sound as though I have placed Nolan as an idol in my life, but wait...
I believe that God's timing is impeccable. He gave me Nolan as a husband and His purpose in marriages is to reveal a greater degree of his nature and being to us through the intimacy of a Bride and Groom, because to Him, the Church is his Bride. Earthly marriage is to be another beacon of light that shows the world who God is and how much he loves us. I believe that God has taught me a great deal about HIS love through how Nolan and I interact as husband and wife because I now have this tangible expression of intimate love that reveals to me how God desires us, and thinks of us, and cares for us and I have been greatly encouraged and strengthened through it.
I have to say that I highly recommend marriage, and when you allow God to choose and reveal you marriage spouse, it's such an amazing experience!!
God is good.
