First Quarter and Answered Prayer

The past 8 weeks have been baptism by fire, for sure. As of today, I've survived the 1st Quarter marking period and lived to talk about it. This is a specific answer to the prayer that God would equip me for this career.

I had some tough spots this week, including:
- Grading 26 Rough Drafts and Final Drafts (that's a total of 52 essays graded in the past 3 days!)
- Reading Devouring Redeeming Love in 2 days (making said grading very procrastinated difficult)
- Really sporadic electricity (resulting in a candlelight grading session on Sunday night)
- Adding a second ESL student (G's older sister, I)
- Giving a student an F in my class (It really was harder for me than for him, I think)
- Coming down with a nasty cold, complete with cough and congestion

On Sunday night, I prayed a very impassioned prayer, pleading with God to heal me of this cold. I know it's just a cold, but it arrived at the worst possible time of the Quarter. I prayed James 5:15 over and over ("And the prayer offered up in faith will make the sick person well"), believing that God would heal me. I even promised that when He did heal me, I would tell all my students about it. (Some people call this tactic "bargaining.")

I've had the cold for 5 days now. No healing.

My energy is nonexistant. My appetite is gone. Cramming in all these grades resulted in a string of late late nights - I slept 4 hours yesterday. I fell asleep at my desk during recess today.

But HOLY TESTIMONY, BATMAN! It's almost Friday, I've computed all my grades (59 students!), graded all the catch-up work from the past 8 weeks (by candle, no less!), and I didn't have to miss any school! I wasn't healed of this cold, but I have proof of Philippians 4:13: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me"!

Sometimes the answer to prayer isn't the Sunday School refrain of "Yes," "No," or "Wait." Sometimes the answer is: "I will strengthen you."

And for THAT, God deserves the glory.

Today, while struggling to make it through my 6th grade class, a student raised his hand and said with concern, "Miss Thomas, can you please sit down?" God love him, a 12-year-old boy cares more about my health than I do.

Lord, thank you for answered prayer.