Things I'm Learning Lately

God is pretty incredible. He provides for His children, and never stops. Even in those times when it seems like He's taking a break, He's not.

I've been reminded of this pretty forcibly in the last few weeks. I've been going to the Art Institute for three quarters now, and I'm about to start my fourth. I was able to transfer something like fifty-four credits from Vance-Granville, which saved me more money than I could believe. Since I started school at AI in August, I've been debt-free. I've been paying for everything out-of-pocket. I couldn't keep that up on my own forever though, and I was really starting to stress about money stuff through the last couple of quarters. I'm terrified of loans, and don't want to start down that road, but I also want to graduate in a reasonable amount of time.

I honestly wasn't sure if I was going to be able to pay for this next upcoming quarter. Tuition is due on March 1st, and I was barely scraping by. I wasn't sure what to do. I could take a quarter off and work (not recommended), or drop a class, and have to pay more per credit hour because I would no longer be a full-time student.

Right as I started to really worry about this, paying jobs started dropping into my lap, seemingly from nowhere. I became a certified lifeguard instructor, which opened up more opportunities for hours and higher pay at work, in addition to the "random" (nothing is random with God) raise that I got at the end of the year. I've been able to continue teaching two swim classes, along with guarding and teaching the lifeguard class. My co-instructor also teaches swim lessons, and we tag-team our lessons and classroom material to maximize the time for both of us.

A few weeks ago I got an email from a couple in Wake Forest, asking to meet with me about babysitting their twins. I haven't watched the twins yet (I was going to a couple weeks ago but one of them got sick), but I have that job waiting for me whenever the couple decides to go out.

Last week a woman called me, saying she was in a pinch and could I watch her two-year-old for her the next day? She had gotten my name from a friend that one of my friends babysits for. When she got back from her appointment she asked me to watch him again this week.

Earlier this week I was blessed to be able to stay with the 102-year-old aunt of another friend, 15 minutes from school, for the majority of the day. I also taught a violin lesson this morning.

My tuition is due in four days. With all the extra jobs I've been blessed with in the past month or so, plus the money my family gave me, it looks like I'm going to have enough to cover the full amount and still have enough left to print the projects I have due next week. It's incredible, and humanly speaking, should not have been possible.

As if that's not amazing enough, even with the insane amount of working I've done just this week (staying with Aunt Mable, babysitting, working four days at the Y, and going to school three days), I've gotten all of my homework done (which was really stressing me out), with time left over for a run yesterday and another workout tomorrow morning. When I started this week I didn't think there could possibly be enough time for everything I had to do, but God has provided yet again, and I'm not even worried at this point.

We often take God for granted. From now on, when life's a little rough, maybe we should stop and think about why it's not rougher than it is. I'm constantly amazed by just how efficiently He works out my life. He is in control, and He is good. Amen.