Friday, May 15, 2015

His Grace Is Enough

I haven't fallen off the face of the Earth, I promise. I've been so caught up in my school work and all the things that come with senior year that I haven't had much free time for blog posts. Now that school is almost over, I actually have time to write.

So, as I said above, this is my senior year of high school. It's been chaos since the beginning! I had decided to take two AP courses (one was only first semester, thankfully) and my other courses are regular ones, but they're still very challenging. It's been very overwhelming and I've had a hard time keeping up. On top of that I've also filled out college applications, studied and taken the ACT for one final attempt at a better score, filled out a million scholarship applications, and interviewed for a program at my favorite college. I had never expected senior year to be so tiring! But, surprisingly, it's also gone quite quickly. Seems like just yesterday I was going to my first day of school...yet in 22 days I will be walking across the stage to receive my diploma!

Having said all that, I have a confession to make. I get stressed out and overwhelmed very easily. It's been very stressful trying to figure out how I'm going to afford college next year. My mom has helped me by reminding me to pray about it. Praying is a very good way to look at something from another perspective, but I was having a hard time letting go of my worry. I wasn't giving it over to God completely...

Let's rewind to the weekend that I received a phone call saying that I had been accepted for the San Damiano Scholars. This is a religious program at Marian that I really wanted to get involved with. I had learned that I had been accepted and that I would receive scholarship money, but I would not know how much or if I could even afford to go the the campus until two weeks later. The next day my youth group went to an event called Encounter Cincinnati. Our Archdiocese does this youth event a couple times a year and there is praise and worship, a religious talk, adoration, and optional confession and prayer ministry available. During adoration I decided to talk to God about my financial worries. I didn't really expect Him to answer me in some profound way because I know that's not how God prefers to talk to us, but at the same time I was still disappointed when I didn't feel something. After adoration was over, we all stood and sang praises to God. The first song that the band played was “Your Grace is Enough” by Matt Maher. I love this song. I've heard it a million times, but when we sang the words “Your grace is enough for me,” it made me realize that I don't have to worry. No matter what happens, God will always lead me to what is best.

Two weeks later I received my financial aid letter from Marian and my backup school and with scholarships and work study it would actually cost less for me to attend Marian! It was very exciting to realize that my dreams of attending my dream school were actually going to come true! :)

Now let's fast forward to now. Last week my family received some bad news. As usual, I kind of had a little melt down and I was extremely worried about what this news would mean. Worst case scenarios started flashing through my head and I really didn't know what would happen. Then I remembered when I was worrying about paying for college. I immediately stood up, went to my computer, and turned on the song “Your Grace Is Enough.” It helped me to remember that God is still holding us in the palm of His hand. God's grace is sufficient and He's going to take care of us, no matter what. All we have to do is trust. It's not always easy to trust in His plan, but He is taking care of us.

Next time you feel the weight of worry and stress, listen to this song and pray. God's got your back. :)



Gob Bless!
Thanks for reading.