Divine Appointments

As I take steps in this journey of restoration, I look back and remember the many blessings He has already given me. The one that keeps coming back to me is in the places I've found employment.

I have been working since I was 15. Part time at first and then when I got to college; full time to pay for my tuition. When I was in the university, God guided me to the first job that I felt was home, a Christian bookstore.

I had accept Jesus into my heart when I was 10 and had gone to church and learned about the Bible, but I wasn't aware of all this other material and knowledge that was available. Books, musics, cards and just copious amount of new knowledge. It was overwhelming and exciting. The people that I worked with became my second family. I met my maid of honor here. The bookstore became a sanctuary. Many important life events happened when I worked there. I grew so much. I look back on those days and I’m filled with great joy and happiness. It broke my heart when they had to close their doors.

But God had opened another door, a Christian school teaching job. The first year was not easy, it was actually quite awful. So awful in fact that I didn't return the following year. I felt so defeated and thought that I misheard my calling. That teaching wasn't my purpose. It was a time of doubt and sadness. While God healed my wounds from that experience, I did a year of substitute teaching.  God had intervened and I returned to my old teaching position the following year. I have been at my school for 16 years. In these years, friendships have been created and established, lessons have been learned and it's become home.

In both cases God has put specific people in my path to strengthen me, to challenge me, to love me, to encourage me and help guide me. In each place he provided divine appointments. Each person placed there for a purpose and for some a season.

I look back and see how these individuals help build me, mold me and help shape the person I am today. I'm thanking and grateful to all these appointments, even the ones that were terrible and heart breaking, because in each experience, I learned, I grew and relied on Him more. He never failed me then and he will never fail me now.

Grateful for His divine appointments.