SECOND CHANCES

Do you believe in second chances?  Have you walked so far down a certain path that you feel that there is no going back?  Relationships have been lost, opportunities gone, and hurts so deep that you doubt they can heal.  I would put my self in the category of part-time believer.  I have always talked a good game, but moments of darkness and worry seemed to take over whenever I truly examined my situation. 

Had I never seen the glow of the sun's rays brightening the morning sky?  As I drove to my new employee orientation it was if everything was new to me.  After 10 years as a stay at home mom and the past 5 years battling to get well...I was embarking on a new journey.  To the average person becoming a middle school teacher might seem like no big deal, but to me it was nothing short of a miracle that a brand new chapter of my life was starting.  I gathered my notebooks, pens, and put on my "professional face" but the moment before I opened the car door the emotion washed over me like a tumultuous wave.  How had I gotten here? 

When I no longer had the answers to the questions and concerns in my life...
When I stopped trying to figure out everything and maintain control.....
When I embraced hope and faith without having to know where those blessings would lead me.....
When I got out of the driver's seat and humbled myself before the Creator of everything.....
When I accepted that God loved me and allowed His grace to enter my life....
When I let go of the past hurts, ideas, and failures....
When I started to live in the 24 hours that I had been given...

Only then could I see the beauty and feel the warmth of the magical sun that had always been in view.  We serve a God of second changes.  He likes nothing better than to take something that we think is dead and buried and breathe new life into our existence.  In my case, he deserves all the glory....but revel in the joy that is mine.

Me on my first day of school...that is my lunch!