Perspective

Sometimes life is heart breaking. Last week I was heart broken over a manipulative boy. Saturday I was heart broken when the Saints lost the playoff game. Sunday I was heartbroken when I broke my favorite coffee mug. Then Monday morning I went to work and found out that 2 of my students were involved in a terrible car accident. These girls are Dean's list students. They have sunny dispositions. They are good girls. They go to church. They volunteer. They love thier families. And now they are laying in hospital beds with broken bones, swollen brains, and internal bleeding all because a police officer chased a criminal into a residential neighborhood without calling for backup to block off the street. The worst part is there was a 3rd girl in the car (thier high school classmate who attends another university in louisiana) who didn't make it out alive. Yesterday I went to the hospital to see the girls and to offer my support to their families and to my other students who were close to them. As I hugged my crying students and listened to the family desperate for some hope, once again I felt heart broken. It's funny how things happen and they change your perspective. Saturday's game is a distant memory and, for once in my life, I am not obsessing over a boy who didn't treat me right.

This week I also got to spend time with my sweet friends Sam and Aaron who just had a sweet baby boy. This is a happy season for them where everything thier sweet son does is a new discovery of cuteness. Every little thing, from pooping to burping to eating to sleeping to yawning.... suddenly becomes precious. I loved spending time with them and sharing in their new joys (and challenges of course...) in being new parents.

It seems that this week was a lesson on Romans 12:15. All week it seems like I have been going back and forth between bursting and broken hearts. On student comes into my office telling me how exciting thier holiday was and the next student I see tells me of how no one bought her a present and she got kicked out of the house on Christmas day. But we are blessed to have people in our lives at different times for different reasons. Living life with Jesus means rejoicing with those who rejoice, and mourning with those who mourn. It's been a bit of a roller coaster. Such is life. Tonight I'm just thanking God for he giving me strength when I'm falling apart, courage to face the things I'm afraid of, hope that tomorrow can be different, and his everlasting love that helps me remember that I'm never alone.