Just a reminder:

There is a God, our Heavenly Father, who created this world. [and His Son, Jesus Christ, died as a sacrifice to pay our penalty for our sins]

Recently, while helping our at the Wednesday children’s program, I was playing soccer with the children and twisted/sprained/rolled my left ankle. It wasn’t too bad, but definitely kept me from working or running around. Then, that Sunday, my ankle was better and we just got a new team and they wanted to play soccer, so I accepted. The game was going GREAT, until...i twisted/sprained/rolled my right ankle...bad. And this was 2 days before going into the jungles in Peru for a week to lead another team. *gulp*

But I rested and took care of it, and the swelling went down, so off I went to the jungle. And that week was so great! My ankles continued to heal and it was a great reminder:

God (our Heavenly Father) CREATED everything.

Like, how did my ankles know how to heal? Like it was a reminder that THIS was not an accident. This life is not ‘random.’ I WAS NOT an accident. God, my Heavenly Father, has a purpose for my life.

Jeramiah 1:5 – I knew you before you were formed within your mother’s womb; before you were born I sanctified you and appointed you as my spokesman to the world.

He called us by name before we were born! (Isaiah 49:1)

Psalm 139:13-15 –You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body, and knit them together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! It is amazing to think about. Your workmanship is marvelous – and  how well I know it.

Spanish is impossible.

Ok, so when we ask to do something for the Lord Jesus Christ: He will give us something we cannot do, that way, (when it happens) we get none of the glory or praise for it. Perfect example is Gideon (Judges7:1-22). Gideon has an amazing story, but one of them is how his army was fighting against the armies of Midian. Gideon had 32,000 troops and God said it was too many, because they could brag about how they did it themselves (v.2 – The Lord then said to Gideon, “There are too many of you! I can’t let all of you fight the Midianites, for then the people of Israel will boast to me that THEY saved themselves by their OWN strength). So 22,000 troops went home because they were scared. God said the army is STILL too big, so the army was narrowed down to ONLY 300 TROOPS. Then God said they were good to go. (I’m not sure how big the Midian army was, but v.21 says that it was “vast.”)

So to me: Spanish is impossible. It is SUPER difficult for me. I studied two years in high school (I was forced to) and I did HORRIBLE in it. And now look where I am...in a Spanish speaking country (you gotta love God’s humor ;) haha!) Speaking a different language is even on my impossible list that I made.

Now I know that God could give me Spanish. He MADE and CREATED the language! Genesis 11:7 says that God gave them all different languages so that they could not understand each other. So God KNOWS Spanish (obviously) and can GIVE it to me. But He has shared with me that He wants to see my discipline in studying, which I completely understand. But it is still SUPER HARD. And sometimes I feel like I’m getting nowhere.

But then it’s cool because I have the mind of Christ. I have a RENEWED mind. Check out Romans 12:2 and I Corinthians 2:16

So now, if I ever speak Spanish...all the glory goes to God, b/c there is no way that I can learn it myself.