Why did I do that again?

This hasn't been the best of weeks. I had a treatment Monday, which was not a good idea. I usually have treatments on Thursday so I can have the weekend to recuperate before going back to work on Monday. This time, however, I postponed it because of my sweet Rachel's 18th birthday. The next few Thursday's were booked so I had to take a Monday. Not good! I was not able to get the rest that I normally do after a treatment and I'm feeling it. Don't get me wrong. I am very blessed to have the job that I have. Being a teacher of the gifted, my students come to me so I had the choice of staying home all week or just canceling my classes but still going to work. (Unless I'm forgetting something, this was the first time that I had cancelled my classes and still gone to work since all of this began.) Since I've had to use quite a few sick days during the last couple of years, I went to work. I might not have been teaching, but I stayed QUITE busy. For gifted specialists, this is the time of year in which we are doing the most paperwork. I currently have a huge stack of papers on my desk. Let me explain. All throughout the first semester of school, gifted specialists visit second grade classrooms to do activities with students for the purpose of finding students who are demonstrating gifted characteristics. We collect a vast quantity of information. Since I don't have a lot of energy these days, I was blessed to have a dear co-worker to do all of that for me. Thank you Sherrie! Now that all of that information has been collected, we are putting it all together and examining each product the students have given us while looking for gifted characteristics. This is quite a daunting task. Since I haven't had students this week, I spent the entire week looking at all of these products. Sherrie is at three different schools (I'm sorry girl!), so she was unable to help me until yesterday. Even though I spent the entire week combing through hundreds of products and Sherrie was there combing through them with me yesterday, we still aren't done! And my energy level is diminishing. I am also the lead gifted specialist in our system so I have other responsibilities besides teaching and all of this paperwork that I just mentioned. Whew! But God is good and I am blessed to have this job. I love doing what I do. It's fun seeing what seven- and eight-year-old children can create. You'd be amazed!

But I digress. You're right Lisa M. This is going to be quite therapeutic for me. I should have started this a long time ago. Even if no one reads it, I can pour out my thoughts and feelings and help myself sort them out. Life is good and I am blessed. God placed me here on this earth for a specific number of days and I need to appreciate each one. We all do. Just look around. It's amazing how He has blessed us. We are just specks in this vast universe, yet He cares about every single one of us. Simply unbelievable! Why? I have no idea. We certainly haven't done anything to deserve His love. That's the beauty of it. He loves us anyway. We can't do anything to obtain His love, and we can't do anything to lose His love. Ephesians 2:9 states, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast." (emphasis mine). There is nothing we can do to earn His love, and there is nothing we can do to lose His love. He IS love. He cannot NOT love us. Astounding!

Wow! Am I preaching or what! I'm just so happy to be His. I may be experiencing trials right now, but because I accepted His love for me, this is as bad as it will get. If you haven't accepted Jesus and His wondrous love, PLEASE DO SO! Because I have accepted Him and His love, this world is the closest to hell that I will ever be. I have nothing but wonder and glory to look forward to. So bring it on!