Week 3

I got to see Mr. and Mrs. Webster (staff from MY boarding school) on Monday. That was fun. We talked about why I wanted to be a houseparent and that has made me think even more about my time in a boarding school. God totally used it to bring me closer to Him and I can definitely say He is and will be using THIS time "in boarding school" to do the same :).

We had a staff training session last night over JYA's "Philosophy of Discipline" and it made me remember that I have been wanting to learn how to control my own responses to people when I am "disciplining" them so that the discipline is actually for the purpose of teaching them rather than because I am annoyed or angry with them. As my director said, "discipline should be mechanical, not emotional"--I am not very good at that at this point in time. I usually respond when I am emotionally involved and I need to learn to calm down and come back to the person. I believe and hope being a houseparent at JYA will be a learning opportunity in that regard. It is also really encouraging to see God answering my prayers ("encouraging" is not a strong enough word due to the fact that realizing God was answering that specific prayer COMPLETELY overwhelmed me with gratefulness and I was sobbing hahah).

I have been reading "The Jesus Storybook Bible" by Sally Lloyd-Jones this week.

For those of you who have not heard of it, it is an EPIC children's ( :) hah) bible that tells a lot of the fundamental stories from the Old Testament and how they foreshadow Christ and then tells a lot of the fundamental stories from the New Testament as well. It is SOOOO good. The way she phrases things makes me cry because they are so straightforward. I can't remember the exact phrasing but when she is writes of the Israelites at the Red Sea with Pharaoh's Army approaching the Israelites are discussing how terrified they are and Moses says something along the lines of "God knows you don't have a way out. Just wait and trust Him. He will provide a way." I LOVE IT. I am going to have to write out what she ACTUALLY says though, because it is much more profound than what I just said. :)

I have a counseling appointment with Anna's mom, Jan, today at noon. I am excited about that because I know there is a lot of stuff going on in my heart but I can't pinpoint anything. That fact (not being able to figure out what's wrong) really was scaring me last week. However, after listening to a few sermons and talking with Anna on Saturday, God further confirmed the fact that I need to just wait for Him to reveal my heart to me in the time He chooses because He is quite Good and Trustworthy and I don't need to hold onto everything with a death grip in an attempt to control it. :)

The girls that ran away were found, by the way, thanks for your prayers for them. They are doing alright, still not wanting to be at JYA but that is pretty standard and understandable.