Getting My Chin Above the Bar

Sunday Hike...the view through the trees

This week I was finally able to complete my long range plans for this year. Normally, this would be completed before the first day of school, but as things played out, this was impossible. Thankfully, next year, Dave has planned more time in the school calendar to allow for this. I have spent countless hours pouring over books, lessons, resources, goals, objectives and the calendar so that I could create a master plan of what I will accomplish this year. What a difference to know where I'm going each week! I still find that I am surprised by many turns and twists in the school calendar but I'm feeling less stressed and less attached to my piles of books and my laptop. As I labored over my plans, seeking to integrate science, history, math, the Bible, geography and literature, my mind swelled with over activity. Yet, I look around at the magnificent integration of our universe, the incredible ways that events in history integrate naturally with the inventions, discoveries and thoughts that have developed and I marvel that I was once convinced that all of this was a mere cosmic accident. My students and I are reading the first few chapters "The Mystery of the Periodic Table" together. The premise of the book is that The Periodic Table is a mystery that has already been solved. What scientists can't understand is how these elements came into such perfect order of atomic weight. Can they really not understand or do they simply not want to admit that there must be a Creator, a Master-planner behind it all? I painstakingly planned out a school year; I know the amount of work it takes and I know for sure that it does not come about accidentally. This week, I felt like I just got my chin above the bar in one long and painfully slow motion. In addition to the stress of lesson planning, I have been feeling stressed about finding land to build our house. I comforted myself that I know the One who has planned out my life so that no matter what comes around the corner, He knows where I'm going and what I'll be doing.
"For I know the plans I have for you; plans for a hope and future." Jeremiah 29:11