My times are in HIS hands

"I trust you, O Lord; I say 'You are my God.' My times are in your hand" ~Psalm 31:14-15

This verse is currently on a picture as the background of my computer. I read it every day as I open my laptop. It's on my desk at school, and it's on the wall of my room. Two years ago I saw it displayed in the kitchen of a family I babysat for, and am now friends with, and ever since then, it has become one of my favorite verses. I see it and read it multiple times daily, yet sometimes I still find myself questioning the truth in it and doubting it. Such was the case in recent days. I let discouragement get the best of me. Retreat with the students was AMAZING, and after having the two worst days of teaching ever last week, I grew very discouraged when thinking about teaching again. On Monday, teaching didn't go well, the kids didn't listen, and a few other events occurred that made it a discouraging day. God always shows up, though, and when I arrived at home, I checked the blog of the same friends in whose home I discovered the verse. Sure enough, their latest entry included this verse, and talked about God's faithfulness and His redemption. They pointed out that God ALWAYS redeems our situations and brings light to our darkness. God gently reminded me to be confident that He will eventually bring light to the "darkness" I'm experiencing right now. Ok, so struggling to teach is not exactly a huge conflict, but so far I'm honestly waking up each day struggling to find any desire whatsoever to go to school and teach. Psalm 31:14-15 reminds me, though, that my times are in HIS hands, and I am confident He brought me here. I LOVE living in Uganda, and I'm 100% confident I'm where I'm supposed to be at this point in life. And because I can be confident of that, I can also look forward to the day that He redeems this situation. I can try to remain confident in knowing and believing that He has a plan, that He's taking care of me, and my times--even discouraging and frustrating times--are in HIS hands!

That all took place on Monday. Tuesday morning I dreaded going to school again, and had a rough start, but ended up having one of my classes go wonderfully. The kids behaved, participated, and cooperated and it was awesome. One good class changed everything. I didn't care what happened throughout the rest of the day--and the rest of the day didn't end up going so well--but one great class was enough to convince me to keep persevering. And today, I woke up with a new sense of joy, not because teaching has been wonderful lately, because clearly it hasn't, but because I have been reminded that joy does not depend on our circumstances. Joy comes from within, and joy comes from knowing that God is in this battle with me. He's called me here, and He has a reason for doing so. He will provide, and my times are in HIS hands. I pray I'll remember that when times are tough.