Carol Moncado

Current Facebook status: Friends in the Springfield area – Cheryl Lynn Jones has a friend collecting stuffed animals for kids in Joplin [friend is working with… someone – an official group]. If you have any new or gently used stuffed animals you’d like to donate and can get them to us before Saturday at 6 or so we can get them to Cheryl. Thanks :).

Currently Playing in the Background: WOW playlist [2001, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2011 on random shuffle]

Okay, God. I get it. Really.

But, first – huge prop shout outs to Casey Herringshaw and Debbie Archer who FINALED in the My Book Therapy’s Frasier Contest for unpubbed authors :)!!!!! So stinkin’ proud of them! SOOOOOO Happy for them!

So then… today…

Matt and I both teach at a local community college. It’s his second job and my main money making activity at the moment [with ‘Mom’ taking the spot as my first job]. We’ve been watching the numbers for our summer classes. You see, there has to be a minimum number of students for it to be worth while for the college to offer the class. During the regular school year, that number is 10 – though exceptions are made from time to time. For summer, the cutoff is usually about 8.

Matt’s class has bounced between 7 and 8 for the last week or so. Mine has hovered in the ‘more than 4 less than 8’ range for weeks. It was giving me an ulcer!

Now, true, if both classes made, I could register for ACFW, but it was so much more than that. Only one class would have us eating into our savings [like we did last year]. Friends [yes, Mom, I see you nodding wisely over there] and family kept reminding me that God has a plan and not to worry. Even if we only had one class between us, He’d provide – and provide a way for me to get to ACFW if that’s where I was supposed to be.

Last night, Matt had bounced back to 7. After stressing for a couple hours, I took a deep breath and said ‘Okay, God. It’s up to you.’ When we checked again, he was back at 8.

Today, I was still hovering at 6. I was writing Ruthie and Andrew’s story in Suburban Straightjacket and Ruthie [who has been through her share of tough times], told Andrew this when things got rough:

“‘Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet the Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the fields grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will He not much more clothe you, oh you of little faith? So do not worry saying “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For the pagans run after all these things and your Heavenly Father knows you need them. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.'”

That’s Matthew 6:25-34, by the way. NIV I think.

So I took a minute as it sank in. Okay. I get it. Really. I do.

Talked to Matt a bit later and he suggested making some phone calls so we’d know when the decisions were official. My friend at my campus answered the phone ‘Yes, we’re keeping your class’. They think a couple more people may add this weekend now that the even smaller classes have been cut. Then I called the main campus and the gal I talked to there wasn’t 100% sure final cuts had been made, but was pretty sure they had been.

I sat here thanking God. Huge weight lifted off my shoulders. It had started to lift even before the phone calls as I claimed the promises for myself and not just fictional Ruthie for Andrew.

So when I write, I tend to have the WOW playlist set to random playing. I’d muted it while I was on the phone but unmuted it as I IMd Mom about the phone calls [and listened to her NOT say ‘I told you so’ ;)].

It was in the middle of the first verse of my theme song. Kutless’ What Faith Can Do. The first words I heard?

But you’re stronger, stronger than you know
Don’t you give up now

I sat here laughing.

Okay, God. I get it. Really. I do. Now, whether I’ll need to be hit over the head a time or two again remains to be seen. I probably will.

But Wednesday, after we start classes, I’ll register for ACFW and start seriously searching for roomies :).

Thank you, God!