Recap Reel

These past few moments have taught me a lot. Some lessons were much, much easier to learn, but all were good ones necessary for growth. There are two things I know for certain: God is God and God is good. From these two fundamentals, I have learned that all things from His hand are good, and that has been my mainstay the past couple months.

I finished my first semester of college already; crazy how time flies! While I enjoyed all my classes, I had two favorites: Old Testament Survey I and Economics (never thought I'd say that!:).

Dr. Wong, my professor for O.T. Survey I is an amazing man of God. He is so humble and wise. In the classroom, he showed me how things in the Old Testament relate to God and His plan for redemption - who would have ever known that the "order of sacrifices" for a priest relate to the sacrifices Christ made on the cross?!? Outside of the classroom, he was so approachable, kind and gracious. He would allow anyone to interrupt his lunch to ask him a question, and he was such an encouragement to me personally. It has been a somewhat tough semester for a couple reasons, and he would just walk up to me in the cafeteria and say, "I am so thankful you are in my class. You are such a blessing." What a kind man. Those words encouraged my heart and blessed me beyond measure. God really knows what a person needs and provides sustenance in some of the simplest ways.

Economics was a good class because 1) it was "practical" and 2) the professor was great! Going into the semester, I was very intimidated about this class and professor. I had heard from more than a few people how challenging he was and I knew from my high school economics class that I wasn't amazing at the subject. But by God's grace He allowed me to "connect" intellectually to everything that was being taught, since I had taken an Economics class with only one semester in between the two. In that way, it was sort of a "continuation class" of what I had learned in high school, which really helped me grab the subject matter. It's neat how God orchestrates everything :)
Outside of classes, I helped work our Fall play and was in the Come Christmas Sing 2011 Christmas Concert! What fun experiences to be a part of.
I also got a job at Target and just found out last week that I will no longer be a seasonal employee. I was made permanent! Praise God! What a huge blessing to know that I will still have an income after January! He truly does know our needs and after what seemed discouraging with job opportunities, the Lord provided and answered my prayers as well as others who prayed for me.

He is so, so good.

God provided our family with one more blessing the day after I got out of school. Our family went on a vacation to the happiest place on earth during Christmastime, which none of us had ever experienced. We all had a blast and we all miss it :( But we cannot wait to go again! :)

One of my dad's friends also graduated from Talbot Theological Seminary (on the Biola campus) the same weekend we went on our vacation so we had the privilege of seeing him walk across the stage as he received his degree! What a testimony of God's blessing and grace! Pictures of that trip coming soon!

There is so much to be thankful for and so many blessings from Him to recount that just writing this post makes me smile (:

May you be blessed too, by the wonders of God and the many, many ways He loves us.

Merry Christmas!