Got to Keep the Faith

I made it through my Monday, even better, the Monday after a long Spring Break. 

Today really wasn't too bad. I could tell the students were not exactly eager to come back to school (for obvious reasons...I wasn't either). 

I made it through my whole entire day and I got an email I wasn't exactly happy about, but such is life. I love my job, but this is just a "mountain" I have to give to God, let Him handle it, and go on with life. 

My schedule for the summer schedule is my typical one. I will be working from 3:30p-11:00p Monday and Wednesday. I was prepared to lose my Wednesday night church time as I always do during the summer. I wasn't prepared to lose it for the fall as well. I will have a night class to teach from 5:45p-7:00p Monday and Wednesday night. So, total, I will miss 24 Wednesday night services. 

I know I'm the low woman on the totem pole and I know there are times where I'm not going to have a choice on many matters, and that's quite okay. It is a part of life. 

However, I'm really going to have to keep my faith strong and understand the circumstance is only temporary. 

I had a friend remind me to ALWAYS find positives in every situation. It's all about perspective. Having a positive perspective can change the mood of the negative situation it feels like at the time. 

So, here again, I'm back to finding something positive out of my mountain. 

Just gotta keep the faith...

The Sound of Silence

This week has been unusually difficult for me only because I've not had a voice.
Allergies robbed my ability to speak. It started a little last Sunday with the normal sniffy, snotty, sneezy allergy stuff, and by Wednesday, I had no voice. This is relatively normal for me. It usually happens as the season changes.

Now, for anyone who knows me, this is a struggle. I love to talk and more importantly, I love to sing. And I was forced to be quiet. All week long, as my voice was going,, I was thinking about how I was going to be able to communicate and sing. Fortunately, I can text so that wasn't too much of a big deal, but I still couldn't sing.

So, today, my voice was better. I could talk mostly, but I still couldn't sing. I had thought earlier about sitting in the congregation and worshiping that way, but I knew it wouldn't feel the same to me. I decided to go ahead and be with the choir and just not sing. As tough as I knew it would be for me, I knew it would be the best.

I still tried a few times to make myself sing. I felt that if I tried hard enough, then maybe my singing voice would magically come back. I quietly mouthed the words to the first song and the congregation song after that before our meet and greet time. After that, I decided to be silent. I decided to listen. What an amazing experience that turned out to be. Being a part of the choir is amazing in itself. I love to sing in it, but I also love to hear how we sound later.

As I'm standing there, listening and taking in the worship experience, I hear just how amazing we sound. I have a very strong alto voice standing beside me, great soprano and alto voices behind me and the tenors and basses behind me. With all of them, and the praise band together, it was amazing. It brought tears to my eyes. They sang all my favorite songs and while I wasn't able to sing, I was able to listen.

Silence.... I think that was God's funny way of showing Himself to me in a different way. I will say, worship was a different experience for me. I think I need to do that more often.

Trying something new

I didn't really think too hard about this title. It was something a friend said to me when I asked if I was normal. Normal? What's that? She said normal is just a dryer setting and I had to laugh. 
We are all a bit crazy. What is the definition of normal anyway? Is there any one person that fits it? 

Aside from title, I have been thinking about blogging for a good while, I just never got the time to sit down and actually start it. I have found out that I have way too many thoughts that jumble in my head. Some nights I can lay them all aside and sleep, but too many a nights I have been awake, thinking of all these random thoughts that love to stay quiet during the day. I've always wondered why those random thoughts like to creep out in the silent of the night. So, hopefully by starting this, it will be able to quiet my mind. 

Today, I had a nice long chat with a friend. My focus has been too zoned in on the negative things about my changing schedules. She kindly reminded me to change my perspective. I took time to think of at least three positive things for each thing I was thinking negatively about. 

"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference"

There are just too many things I don't have control over. Not that I really have control over my life anyway, but I still think I do. I need to keep understanding there is only one person in control of my life and He does a pretty darn good job of doing it too. 

So, as far as this blog goes, you'll get an idea what goes on in the mind of Chelsea. Scary thought sometimes. 

Good night...
Until next time...