Hidden Potential Chapter 3

I haven't said much about the Proverbs 31 OBS.  It started three weeks ago, and I was behind.  

It sounded like a good study, so of course I registered and ordered the book which arrived promptly.

Then it was summer.  I was trying to keep up with outside things, projects that I wanted to complete, things I wanted to spruce up since both of us were able to do these things.  The kids were here often.  We were eating meals in the Party Barn.  There just didn't seem to be the time or the motivation to start the study.

But isn't that what the Devil wants?  For us to be so consumed with other things that reading the Bible, praying, or participating in an OBS can easily be pushed aside?

Last week I started the introduction and the first chapter.  I was amazed that Jim's sermon on that Sunday followed the same topic: the various names we call God.  I learned a couple of things I didn't know before from two sources.    Did you know that sometimes Lord is spelled with a cap and lower case letters, and sometimes it is spelled in small caps, which I can't do here but there would be a capital L and the ORD would also be caps but smaller sized.  There is a different in meaning too.  I didn't, but I won't forget because I heard it from Jim and I read it in Wendy Pope's book!

The second chapter I finished yesterday.  The focus was failure.  Failure at a task is not the same as BEING a failure.  Throughout the chapter guess who came to mind often?  Mom, of course.  How many times did I have to listed to the entire list of things I had done wrong or all of my failures every time she wanted to 'put me in my place"?  She tried to make my failures define who I was and who I would be.  Unfortunately she didn't realize that our failures don't define us, that God uses them for our own growth, and that he moves on from them as we should do also.  One that I used as an example when discussing this chapter with Rhonda was preparing a lesson for my students.  I taught several sections of the same class and at the high school, the ability levels were different.  I guess the ability levels in the college classes were different too...since the night classes seemed to be more of a 'working during the day' people.  Anyway, I could spend SO much time preparing a great lesson, present to one class and feel really good about the effects of that lesson, then teach it to another class and it would flop big time.  Why?  Different kids.  Different time of day.  Different learning styles.  You know me...I would focus on the one that flopped rather than the one that was successful.  Finally I realized that I had to adapt to the different learning styles of the students.  For instance the Honors class, usually college bound kids, were more focused and more academic.  The group that came in after lunch (always a bad time to focus on literature) was usually coming back from vocational classes also and they needed to be motivated in a different way.  That failure really turned into a difference in the way I taught...and for the better.

Now on to this week.  The focus?  Fear.  Oh boy.....fear.  That is me all over.  I am so scared of so many things right now.  I could write and write and write about all of it and this blog post would be SO long.  Guess what?  I won't.

What I will say is that immediate fear is natural.  Turning fear into faith is a major act that needs my focus.  God can see us through everything if we let Him do so.  There is power in prayer, in reading the Bible, and in trusting Him.   God will never let me down.  He will always be with me.  I need to trust him and turn my fear into faith.

I am a work in progress.  I slip back into my old habits easily.  But I am trying.  I really am.

And hopefully this study will alleviate my fear of everything.