Update for 2020

Man! This blog is SUPS old. Today, in between prepping for going back to school, I read over this blog I made in College and in my first couple months of marriage. All my friends were doing it, so why not me. I loved reading over how faithful God has been in my life. I forgot that I was so in LOVE with him. Revelation 2:4, "Yet I hold this against you; You have forsaken the love you had at first." My sweet Jesus, how that has happened over the years. Thank you for your forgiveness and sacrifice.

I ended my last post with a confession. I hate myself. Unbeknownst to me at the time, I had anxiety and depression. I should say I HAVE. I have been on medication for almost a year, and been seeing a counselor for two. This may seem like God has been absent in my life, but He has been so FAITHFUL! Reading over this blog has reminded me how He has shaped my life, but it has also shown me how much I have changed and become more like Jesus. Thank you Father for the grace to be on this journey. 

Nathan and I have now been married for over 11 years. How time flies!! It has not been the easiest but God has met both of us where we are and we have grown so much closer to Him over the past two years; I hope you see a correlation there with the counseling.  I was broken you guys. Absolutely broken. I was so focused on ME. I barely spoke Jesus' name for fear of ridicule and I shrunk into a shell of despair and selfishness.

But God...He met me there. In the midst of the depression and anxiety He called me out of my church job and called me into teaching. I am now about to enter my 5th year of teaching (within a pandemic mind you) and I feel like a new creation. My first year of teaching was ROUGH, and God delivered me out of it with one scripture: Exodus 14:14 "The Lord will fight for you, you need only be still." My second year was at a new school and I have been there ever since. I also began a journey into something called Flipped Learning and God has provided so many ways for His name to be known through this continuing journey in my life.

As to Nathan and home, life is GOOD because GOD IS GOOD. Nathan finished his doctorate after 7 years and God is beginning to show us how He is going to use it for His glory. My time with Nate is sweet and we are growing in love thanks to the Most High. Nate and I recently lost our first dog, Kara, on Valentine's Day of 2020. We were broken and the grieving time brought us even closer together as a family. We have welcomed a new member (and a new sister to Sophie) and her name if Dorothy.

Interestingly enough I am reading Daniel again, this time with 3 students. (How the times have changed?!) I will leave you with this:

"Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of Heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride, he is able to humble." - Daniel 5:37

~ Jess