God is so Good!
This is too awesome to not mention. Those who do not believe, need not read. We have our own built in censorship, use it!
I was stressing a lot about a lot of things, most things were not under my control, so I deal with it. I am not always a good dealer. My dad's condition worsening is not something I can control. Our tuition going up at the school the kids go to is not something I can control. A mentally challenged child going into my class next year is not something I can control-except for going into my boss and laying my job on the line...that is under my control. I don't like confrontation and I really like working at the school, but I know my limits. As Tina can attest to, I don't do well teaching children that are mentally or physically challenged. Now there are exceptions, Connor is not challenged in the way I can't handle, at least in the capacity that I see him as my nephew, who is so full of joy and life, you can't help but love him even if he ISN'T your nephew! I don't think I would be a good teacher to him, however, because I am not skilled in a way that would be beneficial to him. The school I work for doesn't have special needs helpers or anything else remotely like that. You have to "teach them where they are". Not good for me, the student or the other students. So my dilemma was that I was the only 2 day 4 yr old teacher at our school, thus the child, we call her "R" would automatically be in my class. The church the school belongs to is sponsoring R and will most likely only sponsor 2 days a week. So, what do I do? I sit in my family room for about 20 minutes before driving to school to talk to my boss. What am I doing during that time? Praying my heart out that somehow someway, I will not have this child in my class, I will not have to lose my job and that my boss won't brush me off! I literally prayed for something to change so that I would come out of this better off than I was. Another pin in the cushion would be that all hiring right now has stopped because enrollment is down and people are losing their jobs, mostly in the elementary levels. So I didn't think I had a very good chance and was just hoping I could salvage something!
So here is where the story gets interesting....I go on Monday to talk to my boss. The first words out of my mouth are basically, "I need to talk to you, and you may not like what I have to say." Very brave of me I know! But instead of her looking at me and saying, "go on". She looks at me and says, "Oh, I am so glad you stopped in, I meant to call you, I need to talk to you about next year." Uh-oh. But then she says, " I am dropping the 2 day 4 yr old class and adding a 4th M-W-F fours class. Mine was T-Th. Hmmm....then she asks me, "Are you interested in working 3 days a week?" I say with a smile, "sure!" I guess during registration she noticed that of all 10 kids that enrolled in the T-Th class 8 were on the waiting list for the mwf class! Only 2 actually WANTED T-TH (this of course included "R"!) So to fill the need for the parents, she decided, quite smartly I might add, to switch stuff around. So instead of my 2 days a week with 20% discount, I will now be working 3 days a week with a 30% discount! Wheee! Happy me! I am so sure that my prayers helped the situation, because quite recently someone asked why we don't have another mwf class and our boss just brushed it off saying that we couldn't accomodate another class, no room. So against all that I know to be true in the situation, the Lord switched it all around, covered all the stress and fixed everything that I couldn't on my own. For the doubters, yes, it COULD have been a coincidence, but I don't think so....I am not one for blindly thinking that all my prayers will be answered and "sometimes I thank God, for unanswered prayers" (Garth Brooks) because I have a lot to be thankful for whether it was a good thing or a trial in my life. I pray hard and specifically and most of the time, there is an answer. It isn't always the one I expect but what do I know? I don't have the big picture, God does!