God is good. God is faithful. I was running a few minutes behind on my way to school last night. About 6 or 7 miles before my exit, I saw break lights on all the cars ahead of me. Soon, we were motioned to move into the right-hand lane by a police officer. Moving very slowly, we followed the instructions by officers to exit the interstate, go through a town and then onto another road. I was aggravated since I was in a hurry but after calling my husband, he assured me that the road I was detoured to would take me right into Lincoln. I couldn't figure out what the problem was until right before I came to Lincoln. I could see that a semi was tipped over on its side across the entire southbound lane of the interstate. There were cars backed up for miles behind it.

I was once again reminded of the fact that God knows what is ahead of us - he knows the future and we do not. I was frustrated because I didn't know why I had to make the detour but the police officer did and if he would not have sent me on another route, I would have been stuck in all that mess and probably been late or even miss my class.

When I got to school and parked my car, smoke started rolling out from under the hood. I opened the hood to check it out and noticed my antifreeze tank was empty again. I called my husband to let him know the situation and that I would fill it with water and come home after class. But being the wonderful husband he is, drove down, loaded my car on a trailer and left his truck for me to drive home.

Since last night was the end of my current class, the instructors had invited a panel of people to discuss their Lincoln Christian College experiences with us. One thing that all of them said and wanted us to remember was - it was the times that were the hardest, the times that they were discouraged and overwhelmed the most, that they learned the most from.

This morning, I was reading about John Mark in my Bible. It has inserts about different people in the Bible. Here's an exerpt: Mistakes are effective teachers. Their consequences have a way of making lessons painfully clear. But those who learn from their mistakes are likely to develop wisdom. John Mark was a good learner who just needed some time and encouragement.

1. Personal maturity usually comes from a combination of time and mistakes

2. Mistakes are not usually as important as what can be learned from them

3. Effective living is not measured as much by what we accomplish as by what we overcome in order to accomplish it

4. Encouragement can change a person's life.

Hope this all hits your heart like it did mine. Just a few reasons that we can be thankful for the hard times we endure.

Have a great day
Living fearlessly in Christ
Christie