Consulting God

All summer, I had one goal in my mind, get a job. I woke up every morning and went straight to the computer to look at all the different school districts around and saw what job openings they had. I then spent the rest of my morning emailing principals, filling out applications (I now can fill out a job application in less than 30 minutes. It used to take at least an hour), and printing off resumes to take into schools. I would then eat lunch and begin to look at the sites again to see if any new jobs were posted. Through this process, I ended up having 9 different interviews throughout the summer. I did not get any one of the jobs.

About two weeks ago I became very discouraged. Up until this point I had been positive and upbeat and hopeful I would have job by the time school started. But as the start of school drawed near I began to realize I still didn't have a job, and my outlook started to become very dark.

All summer I had been focused on getting a teaching job. That's most of what I thought about, most of what I did, and it's what I prayed about. I even had my family and friends praying that I would find a job. Last Tuesday I suddenly realized, that my goal (getting a teaching job) may not be God's goal for me. I realized that as well intentioned as my goal was, I had not consulted God in this matter other than to say "Give me a job!" I had completely ignored God in the plans for my life, I didn't ask if I was acting in accordance with His will or plan for my life, I simply thought I knew better. Boy was I wrong.

Over the last week, I've asked God to change my heart, my desire and to help me to just listen to Him. Jeremiah 29:11 'For I know the plans that I have for you' says the Lord, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.'

Jared and I both have been trying to just sit and listen and have faith that God knows what's best for us. Please pray for us, not that I find a job, but that we are following God's will.

Welcome to X ISD!

Last year I worked for a school district that had a lot of problems. I will neither name the school district(we'll just refer to it as X ISD) nor talk about most of those problems but the most recent problem I heard about I just had to post.

My sister in law, Jenna has been looking for a teaching job just like me. Orginally all my experiences with X ISD had scared her away from applying with them, but since school starts in a few weeks and she still doesn't have a job, she decided to go ahead and apply. She started contacting schools. She was told that all of X ISD is on a hiring freeze. No Schools are allowed to hire anyone unless it's an internal transfer. So it looks like A LOT of schools will be starting the school year without a full staff. I get the feeling it is a budgetary reason they aren't hiring at all, but really, is the teaching staff in a school district the place to save money?

After Jenna told me all of this she asked me "Why would they do that in the summer?" All I could do was laugh and say "Welcome to X ISD!"