Challenges and Looking Forward

This semester has been a huge challenge for me. I don’t know if I can quite pin-point exactly why, but I can think of some reasons. The main thing that has challenged me is working 20+ hours/week with toddlers. It has definitely helped me to learn more of what patience is, and also what it means to love the least of these. It has also helped me to see how patient God is with us! He is slow to anger…I am swift to anger! I have been challenged to depend on God as I seek to be slow to anger and abounding in love towards these children, just as God is towards me. Amidst this, I started reading “Shepherding a Child’s Heart” by Tedd Tripp. It has humbled me (I am an ambassador of God! I am representing God to these children!), and reminded me to see that their behavior stems from their heart. That also makes that part of my job frustrating because I cannot really get to the heart when I am not allowed to talk to them about Christ! Furthermore, I am not sure why people thought it would be a good idea to put 12-16 toddlers together in a room with 3-4 adults to guide them into adulthood. Perhaps I am wrong, but it seems to me that children at that age should spend most of their time with their parents? I guess some people need to send their toddlers to school for financial reasons? Anyway, it has just made me think of these issues and how God’s Word applies.

However, I really enjoy teaching the 4-9 year old children Spanish and German. The other day I was teaching them how to trill their r’s in Spanish, and some of them got it and were really happy about it! Also, I have definitely learned a lot by teaching at this school, for which I am very grateful. I hope to finish my Montessori diploma (I am finishing up my internship) by the end of the Spring semester. Can’t wait to be done with that!

My hope right now is to attend graduate school at the University of Georgia in Athens for a Master’s degree in German. If I get in, I would like to do their summer study abroad program. In March I have a phone/Skype interview with the department (held in German!), so I guess I will know sometime after that. That is the only place I have applied, so I hope I get in! Otherwise, I am not sure what I will do next year…I would rather not continue at my current job (it does not pay a whole lot, I have a 2-hour round-trip commute, and it can be very frustrating). If I don’t get into graduate school, I may try to do the Summer Institute of Linguistics, or maybe find a tutoring job(s), or look into Volkswagen.

I am trusting God with all of this, though I am often anxious about the uncertainties. But in a sense, the future is quite certain; God works all things together for my good!