It's The End Of The Week...:)

I came home from work Tuesday evening and groaned, "It's only Tuesday and I am dead tired!" I love my mom, for her response was so typical: "Well dear, just keep at it." No matter what, huh?

Let me take a moment and explain how a typical week goes for me and tell how I'm (gainfully I hope!) employed:). Here it is... a typical week: BUSY!!!!!!! While that is true, it leaves out all the details of why I love what I do.

I am: the correspondence Bible Study secretary, the hands-on worker for Challenge Press (I put the books together from start to finish), a supervisor in our ACE (Accelerated Christian Education) Christian School, the volleyball coach, the gym teacher, a babysitter on Fridays (starting in two weeks), a student finishing up Bible Institute, and hopefully a friend, guide, helper, and an encouragement!

While that is a little more detailed than the word "busy", it still leaves out a lot of stuff! For instance, this week found me at HBC on Monday night, visitation Tuesday night, church Wednesday night, a volleyball game on Thursday afternoon, the Ruth Ladies Missionary Group Fellowship with the Heinz family ~ home for about one more month before heading back to Chile ~ on Thursday night, and a volleyball game this evening.

Whew! I'm tired just thinking about all of it again:) You know, as I sat at the volleyball game today, I noticed a player of mine who was really bothered by a play she had made. Granted, it could have been better, but I don't expect perfection. So I cheered out, "It's ok! Just shake it off and get back in the game!". Later in the huddle I told the girls I had noticed that they seemed to be really taking to heart the mistakes that had been made. So I mentioned, "The point is lost; we can't get it back. Why don't we just go back in there and start afresh?". That seemed to work, because I noticed the teamwork and unity amongst the girls improved. While we didn't win, it helped to put it all in perspective.

Later this evening I thought about what I had told Jill. Shake it off. Hmm. I could probably put to use some of my own advice. When a week just seems to be so overwhelming and I'm bushed before it's half-way over and there were some problems that occurred that I wish I could fix, I just need to remind myself to shake it off. At the end of every game, or almost every game, we have a team huddle to "break". The girls will ask me what we're going to say and I always say, "'All for God', because in the end, that's what really matters." One girl commented today she knows I'm going to say that every time and she loves to hear it, but I want to make sure these girls know that. I have an opportunity to use it as a "teaching moment". The volleyball game we played today probably didn't have much eternal value, but it might've helped shape a girl's attitude and spirit. Even as I sit here thinking back on my week, I see a week that is now only a distant memory on a past calendar page. It can't be redone. But the one redeeming factor is, to quote Anne of Green Gables, "Tomorrow is always fresh with no mistakes in it... no mistakes yet." I like that. Tomorrow is a brand new day...

"It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness."

~Lamentations 3:22-23~