Tuesday, August 13, 2013

The Father's Faithfulness

Yall know how songs come to my mind often when I'm trying to put my finger on how I'm feeling. And the song that came to mind when I was thinking about this post is kind of an oldie that has been sung by Chris Tomlin and good ole' Michael W. Smith. You know the one that says "forever you are faithful, forever you are strong, forever you are with us, forever..."?

Well, sometimes you don't realize just HOW faithful our Father is until you have a little bit of distance to look back on things. Other times it hits you in the face and it is impossible to credit yourself or anyone else besides God with how things all happened. Well, this story is one of those times when His faithfulness was impossible to ignore.

"For we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, 
who have been called according to his purpose"
Romans 8:28

This story will be presented in timeline form...

November 2012: Matt Sutter & Amanda Bradley get engaged

December 2012 - January 2013: Wedding plans commence

January 2013: Both Matt and Amanda begin semester-long internships. Matt was in LaGrange, Georgia doing student teaching and Amanda was in Birmingham at Mitchell's Place. Matt finds out that he will have two preps, neither of them really history. The first prep was for psychology and the other prep was for government classes. We both tried to find a reason that he'd have to drive an hour into another time zone in order to not even teach a history class....

January 2013-April 2013: Matt slugs his way through his student teaching while Amanda quickly falls in love with Mitchell's Place.

March-ish 2013: Amanda starts to stress about finding jobs. For both her and Matt. Matt, true to character, doesn't stress. 

May 2013: Matt & Amanda graduate from Auburn University. 2 days later, Amanda travels to Birmingham to interview with Hoover. (Long story short, I got the job!) Then...the principal asked Amanda to be the cheerleading sponsor. After some laughter and some prayer, the newest cheerleading coach at Simmons was someone who had never cheered in her life! 

July 2013: What a month. Marriage. Loss. See earlier blogs for what happened in July. Still no job for Matthew. Confusion. Doubt. And maybe a couple of prayers that went something like this...

"Dear Lord. Matt's life has been kinda poopy lately. He deserves a job. Why hasn't he gotten a job? This isn't fair!....etc etc."

(*Note: Probably not the best example of all those key good Christian words like "faith" "trust" and "leaning not on your own understanding")

July 31st, 2013: Cheerleading parents meeting. One parent shows up (a dad) and makes the comment that he wouldn't be here except that his wife was out of town. [Obviously totally thrilled to be in attendance]. He's wearing a local school's athletic shirt. Amanda's big mouth opens and asks where he works. He says "Irondale Middle School". Post meeting, Amanda opens her big mouth again and says that if he ever needs a social studies teacher she's got one at home. He says "I just posted a position today actually". SHUT THE FRONT DOOR! (Didn't say that out loud). Email promptly sent by my sweet hubs to said dad (and principal) of this middle school.

August 2nd, 2013: Matt gets a call that said principal/dad would like him to come on Monday for an interview.

August 5th, 2013: Matt interviews for the position. Thinks it goes well.

And then. NOTHING. Not a word. For 2 whole days!!!

Wednesday August 7th @ 7:00 am: Another stellar prayer went up "Dear God. This stinks. You messed with him again. Seriously?!?!?!?!?! Another lead and it's not going to work out. WHAT ARE YOU DOING???"- Maybe don't take prayer notes from me yall.

Wednesday August 7th @ 11:00 am: Matt shows up. At cheer camp. And.. Wait for it. Is employed. He got the job! He's a teacher! He's employed! He will be teaching 7th & 8th graders at Irondale Middle School and will be helping coach football and track. Oh, and the funny thing is. He'll be teaching civics to 7th graders. Aka. Government. (Ohhhhhhh that's why He placed him in that internship)

It should be noted that at this point on Wednesday I instantly felt a wave of guilt for the struggle session I had been having that morning with Jesus. How little faith I showed. But this I know. HE is FAITHFUL. Even when I doubt, even when I struggle, when I whine and complain. He is still faithful. He is working ALL things together for the good of those who love him. 

My lesson from all of this is to try and do a little less whining and complaining and to keep my eyes open for the incredible ways He is working in our lives.