I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.
Philipians 3:14 (NLT)
Well, I have just finished my first week of my second last prac before I finish my education degree. I cannot tell you how much work is involved because I am sure words would not give it justice! I have been up late every night and right now I am fully exhausted. Each night I have wanted to post a blog containing little trials and challenges I have gone through (and overcome!) BUT there have simply been too many other things to do. I have been collecting a whole list of things I would like to blog about and overtime I hopefully will. God is doing such an amazing work in my life right now that I am so excited about and cannot wait to share with anyone. Anyway, before I add any more length to this blog I will end it here. The following is a blog that I began writing during the middle of the week but have only just got about it finishing and editing it tonight. Hopefully it inspires you to push on towards the prize!
Preserving our Skin
The other night as I was working away meticulously at the computer, trying desperately to keep up with all my prac work such as reflections, lesson plans, observations etc. I became very tired. It was roughly around 12/1ish in the morning and my eyes were so sore that I could hardly keep them open. Every now and then I would fade off, my eyes would shut and I would fall asleep. However, for some strange reason, I still had this urge in my spirit to press on. To keep on going until I got everything finished.
Often times in the past if I have become too tired to work, I have gone to bed without having everything completed for the next day. The problem with this is however, as a teacher in training – this just doesn’t work! As soon as I would wake up, my mind would be immediately running on overload. I would not even have one moment to stop and ease myself into the day. As soon as I would wake up, my mind would dart back to all the tasks that I still had to complete from the night before and my mind would be running on overload first thing in the morning. I’d have to think about tasks that I have to get finished right away, still have to catch up on tasks from yesterday as well as what I ad planned for that day and for the whole day I would be playing catch up.
Last night was different however. Even though I was so tired, I knew that this time was different to every other time. I really didn’t have that much more to complete, I needed to push myself and make sure that I got everything finished. So, I put all my thoughts of bed aside and said to God – ok, if I must stay up, you give me the strength and energy I need”. As soon as I said this, for some reason (I’ll let you work out the connection) I felt like going and doing 20 sit ups and 30 tummy crunches and 10 star jumps. Now, that’s an odd thing to feel like doing at 1 in the morning – but the directive was so strong that I would not ignore it. So, off I go and do the exercises, feeling quite silly doing these activities at this time of the morning. While I was doing the exercise I felt a sudden surge of energy gravitate up my spine and immediately I realised that God had just answered my prayer. He had given me the strength that I needed to complete the tasks that needed to be completed.
Needless to say, I was able to complete the tasks that needed to be completed for the morning as well as clean up my desk, do my nightly cleansing and face washing routine, have time with God as well as have my devotion. And, even though it was quite late (or should I say early – like 3 in the morning!) as soon as my head finally hit the pillow I slept like a baby…in fact, better than a baby! I had the most wonderful night sleep and woke up fully refreshed in the morning. The difference was, I didn’t have to go to bed still worrying about the things I had to do in the morning, wondering if I would wake up and be able to complete everything in time for (seeing I have to be at school before 8:00am). The other factor that contributed to my good nights sleep was my time with God before I went to sleep. Because I had surrendered all control over to God and spent time just sitting in his presence my spirit was at peace and I was able to truly rest. I find that when I do this, all the stress from the world (such as deadlines, overdue tasks, worries), is released from my mind and body and i don’t have the physical weight of it hanging over my head when I sleep. Now I am sure this must be one of the biggest beauty tips in the book! How much better our bodies would cope – and how much less wrinkled our skin would be if we did this all the time!
An important note thought: When God gives you His strength it doesn’t mean he makes the task easier for you to handle. It will still hurt our flesh and we will still have to push beyond our restrictions and determine in out hearts to do it and the temptation to give up with still be there. But, His strength gives us the ability to overcome the task, if we so chose! It was still hard to stay up and compete the tasks. I remember wanting to give up and go to bed so many times even after God gave me the strength for the task. In fact, I’m not sure just how many times I was almost tempted to go to bed. But I persevered, I pressed on toward that prize, and boy am I glad that I did it!
Now, no one can tell me that God doesn’t exist! His strength is so real!
No comments:
Post a Comment