A week before payday...

Today I looked at the calendar to check just how long we have left in this month and realized, I am a week from payday! Now all the teachers out there who get their last paycheck about mid-December know just how much that first check of the new year is anticipated. Unless you are major disciplined, making it from the 21st of December to Feb. 1st without going into the red is really tough! But as I looked and saw that in just a week I'll get paid, I breathed a sigh of relief.

To be honest, yes, the next week may be a little tough. We'll finish off whatever is in the freezer and make a trip to the grocery only for milk, eggs, and bread - and maybe not all that! Still, I know that in just one week, my check will come. How do I know? Well, I've been a teacher now for over 10 years and they've always paid me before. They haven't let me down yet, so why would I believe this time would be any different?

Wonder why I bring this up? Well, my word for this year is ANTICIPATION. It is that excitement of knowing that something is on its way. I anticipate next Monday when my paycheck will be in my hand. Will it be huge? No. Will it be for me to spend on whatever I want? No, as a matter of fact, almost all of it is "spoken for" in the way of paying for the things we need to get by from day to day. Will it even last till the next payday? Well, not if I forget what its purpose is. Still, I know it will be there and to be honest, it will be enough. All that from a job that I could lose tomorrow. Yet I am confident that for now, it will be there.

How much more can I count on the promises of God? He has NEVER failed me...in fact, He's bailed me out of some pretty yucky situations before. He has ALWAYS come through - no matter how much I wondered if He would come through this time, He has always been there. He has ALWAYS provided for my needs - not necessarily all my wants, but my needs are taken care of! To top it off, sometimes He gives me much more than what I asked for, much more than just what I need to barely make it through. I can't think of a single time when my paycheck has had extra in it just to bless me!

This can be a year of anticipation for us all. Just like this final week before I get paid, at times it will get a little tough, but we know He will come through. He has NEVER failed us - even when we have failed Him. No matter what comes your way, look up in anticipation. He who has promised is faithful. He will come through. That which you have eagerly hoped for is on its way...and it won't even have FICA, Insurance, or any other extras withheld from it! So rejoice and be glad. Your answer is on its way.

Psalm 27:13 "I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living."

1 Thessalonians 5:24 "The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it."

Hebrews 10:23 "Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful."

Wait for it....Wait for it....

Most of us HATE to wait. We want everything ASAP! Instant service, no waiting, serve me now! Very few of us think of waiting as a GOOD thing. But it can be....if it is waiting coupled with anticipation of what is to come!

There are a few of us still around who remember the ketchup commercial that used Carly Simon's song Anticipation as its theme song. "Anticipation. Anticipation. It's making me wait...." (I love another line in that song - these are the good old days...but that's for another blog.) The idea was that this ketchup was worth waiting for! It was just that GOOD!

As I mentioned in my last blog, I have such a strong feeling of anticipation about the coming year. This is very good news to me since looking back at last year's blog, I realized that at this time last year I felt a strong feeling of foreboding...that it would be a rough year. The word I chose to focus on for last year was hope and at times it was a choice, a very difficult choice, to hang on to that hope. This year feels very different. I am almost giddy with excitement of what is to come. I have no idea what it will be, but I know it will be GOOD! My anticipation, my expectation, is that God is about to do something wonderful and I'll get to see it!

There is a second part to that anticipation, however. It is "making me wait"....guess that's what anticipation is all about - waiting. But this waiting isn't a dread or a bore - it's filled with excitement of what is to come! This is like the days leading up to Christmas that are filled with preparation and joy, knowing that an expected celebration is near! It is hope plus a little bit more.

Somehow I came to the following verse in my morning Bible study: Lamentations 3:21-25 (By the way, I NEVER thought I'd find this kind of encouragement in a book called Lamentations, a word whose root means a passionate expression of grief!) Back to the verses: "Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”  The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him". The New King James versions says the last part a little differently: "The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, To the soul who seeks Him." That word "wait" is qavah and according to Strong's it means "To wait for, look for, expect, hope." It is the root of the noun tiqvah, "hope" or "expectancy". Qavah expresses the idea of "waiting hopefully." For me, it is as if the "hope" I had last year, sometimes simply as an act of faith that seemed to take everything within me to hold on to, has now been coupled with joy!

The season of waiting and, to be quite honest, sometimes wondering would God really come through for me, has been replaced with the excitement of knowing He will. Now instead of just sitting and hoping, I'm ready to take that hope and RUN with it!

I do not know what your 2010 was like. Perhaps you too have had a season of holding on to hope by the tips of your fingers, wondering if you could really hang on. If so, then I boldly declare the Word of the Lord to you. "
"Forget about what's happened; don't keep going over old history. Be alert, be present. I'm about to do something brand-new. It's bursting out! Don't you see it? There it is! I'm making a road through the desert, rivers in the badlands." Isaiah 43:18 - 19

Wait for it...wait for it....don't give up hope! Now this is waiting that I can do!

To those who "discovered" my blog thanks to thehighcalling.org, I'd like to say Welcome! Make yourself at home, check out a few of my more recent posts, and leave a comment or two. I'm glad you're here!

Just words...

About 12 months ago, we were looking at the beginning of 2010. I heard a radio program that encouraged people to find one word that would encapsulate the new year. Almost immediately, I knew what my word would be - hope.

Hope. According to the dictionary, hope means to believe, desire, or trust; the belief that events will turn out for the best. I liked that. Most definitely, hope would be the word for 2010. Little did I know just how much I would need that word, of how greatly my hope would be tested.

Before the thaw of spring could bring new life, my hope began to be tested. One of the first trials came when the company my husband worked for closed its doors without notice. Like most families, we lived paycheck to paycheck and now that paycheck had been cut in half. Still, I knew God would provide. At least, I thought I knew, but as the weeks stretched into months with no prospects in sight, I found myself paralyzed with fear. I didn't see how God was going to work this one out. Eventually my husband did find work, but it is very hard on him physically and like most jobs, doesn't pay what he had been making. Still, we've tried to console ourselves that at least it is a job.

I felt at times like I was holding on by the very tips of my fingers...but then the encouragement would come and I was able to renew my grip. It seems that 2010 was filled with trials that challenged my hold on hope. There were trials with my own children, trials with health, trials with friends, trials with students. I'd love to say I was always brimming with hope and good cheer, but it was/is truly a daily battle to hang on. As I sit here, nearing the end of the year, I am realizing just how powerful hope can be. When I thought I was holding on to hope, hope was in fact holding on to me.


Here just a few of the scriptures that carried me through.

"Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God" (PSALM 146:5)

"Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God (PSALM 42:5)

"Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful" (HEBREWS 10:23)

So now it's time to look toward 2011, and I find a new word is resonating in my spirit: Anticipation. Dictionary.com gives this definition: realization in advance; foretaste; expectation or hope.

There are also a couple of verses that pretty much sum up what I'm feeling now:
Romans 8:18 (The Message)
18-21That's why I don't think there's any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what's coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens.
Isaiah 43:18 - 19 (Message)
"Forget about what's happened; don't keep going over old history. Be alert, be present. I'm about to do something brand-new. It's bursting out! Don't you see it? There it is! I'm making a road through the desert, ... rivers in the badlands."


Yes, the word for this year is most definitely "anticipation."

May your new year be filled with anticipation of what God will do!