What a Week!

These past couple of weeks seem to have been riddled with bad news…one of my old Navy buddies died suddenly because of a blood clot in his lungs. My favorite morning anchor was found bludgeoned in her bedroom early last Monday morning and died this past Saturday evening and the perpetrator is still at large. My 401K is now a 4.01K, some of my favorite old customers are experiencing down turns in their businesses, the candidates I am supporting look like they are going to loose their elections, and my team lost the world series last night. To top it all off…I have been suffering from the “change of season” sinus crud…oh the horrible headaches, the sneezing and freezing, the feeling of drowning every time I lay down…and the medicine just makes me want to sleep…UGH!

As I’ve wondered from bed to couch to kitchen and back again clad in wrinkled pajamas, looking like I’ve been to visit Donald Trump’s hairdresser, with a box of Kleenex in hand, I have been trying to focus on things to be thankful for…reasons to praise God.

Naturally my first thought was of my husband, my son’s, and my life in Christ. Then my mind wondered to the career I so recently gave up. I loved those million dollar marketing campaigns, those co-operative marketing partnerships that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and were quite successful. I thought about the many times I had spoken to thousands of people in crowded ballrooms… the successful presentations and one-on-one conversations. I still keep in contact with some of my customers, co-workers, and tourism partners. It was a wonderful time in my life…the impact I made for my city and state…it was grand! However, not long from now…few people will even remember who I am let alone any of those campaigns I was so proud of, will they?

As I lay there trying to blow my red, sore nose one more time I was reminded how not long ago during a shopping trip I heard from a distance, “Ms. Theresa, Ms. Theresa.” I looked up and to my surprise saw one of the girls I used to teach in Sunday school. We spent a few minutes catching up. I was delighted as she talked of her college classes and future plans. As she walked away she casually looked over her shoulder and said, “Oh, one more thing…I teach Sunday school, too. Thanks!”

Just a couple of weeks ago I ran into another past student, a young man. He was one of our favorites…shhhh…I know we’re not supposed to have favorites, but sometimes you just can’t help it. He towered above me! He reached down and gave me a big hug and again we spent time catching up. He talked about a lesson he remembered about jealousy. It really was a play on words…I had told the kids when you are jealous it makes you feel lousy…that’s why it’s spelled like that…and when you are jealous you are the louse… Now, that whole class, along with kids in his school say “Jea-lousy” when jealousy rears its ugly head. I couldn’t help but laugh, thankful that at least one lesson had stuck after all these years. Now that’s an impact that will last!

I realized my greatest success was not in the mother and wife I have become or in the marketing genius I thought I was; it was in those kids and all the others that had passed through our nine and ten year old Sunday school class…and it wasn’t even my success…it was God’s! For that I am eternally thankful!

I am thankful I said yes when asked to teach that class. I was so worried…I had to pray it through…I was kind of afraid to teach kids. I had taught adults. I had gone to different churches and given my testimony to hundreds of teens and young adults…but children? I am thankful that through that fear, I was able to submit and let HIM do the teaching…I was just a vessel. How great is our God?

The Martin's said it so well in a song some time ago...count your blessings when you're feeling blue...it's surprising what a little bit of counting will do...

Ahhh, I feel better already!

Deuteronomy 6:7 “Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”

Proverbs 22:6 “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.”

1 Timothy 6:19 “In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.”