Timing

Two years ago, I was pretty sure I was going to be called as a Sunday School teacher.

Before graduate school, that calling would have terrified me. I was shy, and standing in front of a room teaching each week seemed like the most daunting thing ever. But this was a year into graduate school, and something had changed. I was surprised to discover I wasn't scared of teaching anymore. When I started feeling like I would be called as a Sunday School teacher... I wasn't afraid.

Because of these feelings, I wasn't surprised when the Sunday School President pulled me aside at ward prayer and asked me to substitute teach. "This is it," I thought, "This is the first of many lessons." My lesson actually went much, much better than I expected. I actually enjoyed it.

And then... when we received our callings, I was called as the Family History Consultant. This was a bit of a surprise, but I wasn't concerned. I figured I had just misunderstood what the Spirit was trying to tell me.

Fast forward to winter semester. The Sunday School president facebooks me to see if I will be staying for spring/summer. They are going to start a family history Sunday School class, and they are wondering if I will be available to be a teacher.

I won't be. I'm graduating and moving back home in April. But I submit the name of another girl, a family history major who I know would be an excellent teacher.

Life gets crazy busy as graduation approaches. I slave away on my thesis until the day comes for my defense.

I am TERRIFIED. But it actually goes quite well, and I pass my defense.

I walk home, on a high from the experience. I walk through the door of my apartment.

My phone buzzes.

It's a message from the Sunday School president. They've decided to have the class now after all. Would I be willing to teach it?

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This experience was to me, a powerful testament of the Lord's timing in our lives. Months in advance, I knew the call that was coming. But it didn't come until the exact moment (literally!) that I had time in my life to do it, without being too stressed because of the rigors of graduate school.

In life, God's timing isn't always so easy to understand... But we need to trust that He knows us and He loves us. He always answers our prayers... in the best time for us. That can be outside our mortal comprehension for now, but when we look back someday, we will see that it is all for our best good. He knows what we need and when we need it far better than we do.

So... when I get impatient in life, I try to remember this experience. God's timing is the best timing. Our patience will be rewarded.

Emerging from the Cave

I've spent the last three days focused solely on my thesis revisions. It's been a blessing-things opened up so that is all I had to worry about. For the first time I can remember, I didn't need to do any research for my professor (we are waiting to hear back from the IRB on his latest study) and my class assignments aren't due until Tuesday, so I didn't need to worry about those yet. The first couple days were great. It was actually very relaxing to be able to focus on my thesis and not have to worry about anything else. But this last day has been really tough for some reason. I guess I've just been a little stressed out about getting the thesis back to my committee in a timely manner. It is finished though! I sent them the latest round of revisions 5 minutes ago. I will be very surprised if they don't ask me to do another round or two of revisions just to get things right, but I think we are getting very close. :) And I have until February 17 to get everything polished up for their satisfaction (that's the last day we can talk to the secretary about scheduling a defense), so I think I am in good shape. Graduation, here I come!

UPDATE: Ha, well, my professors just got back to me to say I am okayed to schedule! :) The secretary is out of her office by now, but I sent her an email, and on Monday we should get things set up. Thesis defenses have to be scheduled at least two weeks in advance, so the soonest it could happen would be February 20. It all depends on when my professors are available. But this is good news! :) The last possible day to defend is March 2, so this puts me a bit ahead of schedule. That's good, because basically everyone passes their thesis defense pending revisions, which means I'll be back to revising as soon as the defense is over, and I have to get it all turned finalized and turned in around mid-March sometime. This means I should hopefully have the time to do all of that... provided I pass my defense! I am starting to get a little nervous about that.