It seems like lately I can never wait until the end of a certain time period to end in my life. Today, I've been anxiously awaiting two very specific time periods; this week and this semester. I'm waiting excitedly for tomorrow acutally, because I can't wait to accomplish everything I want to accomplish in my day tomorrow. I've got so much school work I can do and so much worship time I can experience. There are just so many blessings that I can readily receive tomorrow that there's no reason why I shouldn't look forward to the next day.
I did find out today, after looking through my syllabi, that I have one exam on a monday during finals week. And I have the rest of my exams on Wednesday. Now, I have five classes this semester. So...do the math...and you'll see I have 4 exams on Wednesday. Four! Three of them end and begin within ten minutes of each other. So, I have my Soc exam from 12-1:50, my accounting exam (which is downtown) from 2-3:50 and then my Italian exam (which is on main campus again) goes from 4-5:50. SICK. And...the one I have earlier that day is at 8-9:50. So yeah. WOO HOO! Good times. I'm definitely going to sit down with my professors like tomorrow and be like, "yeah...about this...." cause it's not going to work.
On a side note, God's blessed me with an amazing overabundance of time today. All my homework and studying is done plus my daily Bible readings and I am all set for work tomorrow. WOO HOO! Great start to the wonderful end to my week.
You know, when you're young and naive and very superficial, you ask God for the strangest things. I guess it wasn't completely strange for me to ask God for a boyfriend, but the man of my dreams I always dreamed up was a far cry from the type of person I should have been asking God for.
"Dear God. Thank you for this wonderful day and for blessing me with a beautiful and loving family. I do have one favor to ask. Please Lord, give me a boyfriend. The perfect guy too. Maybe he can move from somewhere else besides Chelsea, because I don't believe any of the guys here are for me. Please make him popular, atheletic, and really cute. He should be funny too. Oh, and we should be best friends too. And could you make him really nice and sweet to me too? Like someone who likes to be romantic? If you could just send me this guy that would be GREAT. Thanks again for a great day and for all you have given me. In your name, Amen."
That was the prayer I prayed on many occassions. And you know what's REALLY strange? God didn't care that I was being completely superficial and asking for things that don't always matter in life. He gave me the man of my dreams, but He also gave me something I didn't count on. He gave me a guy who loves Jesus. He gave me someone who wants to follow the Lord and wants to follow the Lord with me.
I remember several months ago, Craig approached me after frisbee. It was about that time that I realized how much he loves me. To paraphrase, he basically said this.
"I've been praying a lot lately Liz and I've been listening to these sermons on tape and I've been getting into the Word. God's showing me that I really need to start following Him more and He wants me to take you on that walk with me. This is something we need to do together."
You know, it's simply such a blessing to know that God is going to give you what's best for you. He gave me someone who wants what's best for me. Craig wants me to know the Lord and he wants me to live my life for Him. Craig wants me to put God before all else.
Since our relationship has shifted to a far-more God-centered one than it had been in the past, so many blessings have been coming our way. We are shaping the lives of so many people around us. We are so much more loving and accepting towards one another. We get together and pray each day and we're studying the Bible together. We have come so far together in the past two months since we first had that conversation, it's hard to remember or understand what we ever accomplished before this shift in our relationship. I can't even remember what it was like to be in a relationship with someone and not have God in the middle of it all.
If you don't believe that God answers prayers, let me tell you something He does. And so many times, He gives you more than you ever expected of Him.