Stuck

Do you ever feel as though you are just stuck in life? Stuck in your job, stuck in your housing situation, stuck in your relationships, just stuck? It seems to me like many of us do tend to feel this way at different times in our lives. For me, it has been recently. As many of you know, both Luke and I work as full-time high school teachers. Well, this year, we have felt stuck. Stuck in our profession. This stuck feeling has not been the best thing to go through. It has kinda left us hanging. For quite some time we have felt as though our life is just floating in the air. We feel as though we are stuck in our teaching profession, when the reality is, we are ready to move on.

Kelly, my friend and partner in Blooming Ministries sent me an instant message today mentioning that I go to this website: http://www.northpoint.org/messages
and listen to the message titled, "Asking Big". Well I did, and oh my goodness, my prayer life needs to change. I encourage you to listen to the entire message and in turn, view the questions that are listed and really take to heart what is being said. After listening, I am determined to no longer allow myself to just kinda let each day stroll in and out-I am determined to really pray, I mean pray hard for those things that only God can do-because in the end, he will get all the credit.

I don't know about you, but I'm tired of being stuck. I want the passion back in my life. As I have been going through this whole job "stuckness" my mom and I have been communicating via email. One of the things she mentioned to me is that it is quite apparent that my heart beats for full-time ministry. As we have been talking, I was reminded of when I was doing full-time youth ministry and how one day while I was on the phone with her, I told her that I truly could not imagine doing anything else but full-time ministry. Its where my heart was and still is. It is what I am passionate about.

So, needless to say, I'm determined to get unstuck and I'm determined to ask big so that in the end, all I can do is point to God and say that it's only because of him that I am where I am!

Stress

I HATE STRESS! I hate the fact that stress can just sneak up on you and then all of a sudden, it's all you are thinking about. It drives me crazy. I have to admit too, I'm not that great at handling stress. As you know, our lives have been floating up in the air. Needless to say, my husband is stressed tonight and in turn, that makes me stressed.

Today I was talking to a few teachers at lunch and I'm just starting to wonder if I need to take a break from my doctoral studies. I just feel as though I have so much on my plate that at some point, something has to give. I just don't know.

Also, something kinda weird happened last week. I get this email from my good friend Simon who is a youth minister in Texas. He writes me to encourage me to apply for a female youth minister position in Texas. The church is looking for a woman to begin a girl's ministry where the average youth attendance is 500. WOW! I have to admit, when I got the email, I was immediately excited. I have not been looking for a position like this, it just kinda appeared. Needless to say, I applied and will be speaking on the phone tomorrow with the organization that the church has hired to find someone for the position.

At this point, all I can do is leave everything in the Lord's hands. There's no use in stressing out about what the Lord is doing in our lives, what good will Stress bring to my life? All we can do is take one day at a time, enjoy each day for what it's worth, and in turn, continually trust the Lord. I often have to remind myself that the Lord has never let me down in the past, why would he do that now? He has always been faithful and He will continue to be faithful.

So, if you think about, please say a little prayer for Luke and I. This has been a weird school year for us-not what we really planned for, but I know that in some way, the Lord is trying to teach us not only patience, but to also trust Him, even when we have no idea as to what is going on or what will take place in the future. I have no doubt that He is causing us to rely on Him more and more with each new day.

Jen

PS-please say an extra prayer for my hubby-I don't like to see him stressed-all I desire is to see him enjoying what he is doing in regards to his career.

The Latest Happenings of the Bennett's!

It's so hard going back to work after you've been off for two weeks! Last Tuesday, my Christmas break ended :( What's even worse is that as soon as the kids came back, I once again caught the flu and am now in bed trying to recover. I think this is like my third instance of this. Welcome to the life of teaching!

Luke and I had a fabalous Christmas and New Year's. We were invited to attend our friends wedding-Jessica and Jason on December 31st and spend the last of 2006 with them and friends from church. The wedding was beautiful and the reception was held at a Cuban restaurant that Luke and I had no idea existed! It's located in Winter Park and oh my gosh, the food was the real thing!

Another exciting event that took place was the Disney Marathon festivities this past weekend. Our friends Michelle and Jonathan from Jacksonville came up and on Friday, Michelle and I took part in the 5K. We also got to meet up with my sister-in-law and her sister who were there too for the festivities! Then on Saturday Jonathan and Luke ran the 1/2 marathon (13.1 miles) and then get this, on Sunday, Luke and Jonathan and some other friends, ran the full marathon (26.1 miles)! Both Luke and Jonathan made it through both races! It was amazing! It was absolutely amazing to see the people coming through the finish line. After running the full marathon, many people immediately were put in wheelchairs once they crossed the finish line-their legs could no longer handle the run. It was also amazing to see just what incredible shape these people were in. Michelle and I had the awesome privilege of going from spot to spot to take pictures of the boys throughout the race! We also had the privilege of sitting on Main Street in the Magic Kingdom at 6:30 a.m. waiting for two hours to see the boys pass us by for one second. What was cool was that we got to see the lead runner who I must say was running very fast and didn't have anyone behind him for like 15 minutes. He finished the 26.1 mile run in 2 hours and 19 minutes. I think his pace was like 5-minute miles. AMAZING!

All in all, it was a great weekend. We even stayed the night one night at the Dolphin hotel which I must admit, was beautiful and come Sunday, I had no desire to leave. As of now, Luke and I along with Michelle and Jonathan are going to look at running the 5K in March at Disney. Should be another fun filled weekend.

Classes have once again started up for Luke and I. We are now in our second year of our doctoral studies. Hard to believe. I am in the process of trying to get the first part of my dissertation completed. Not such an easy task. Trying to really motivate myself to do it. I'm hoping to get some of it done this weekend. We will see.

Well, I must go take a shower and after that, I must continue the task of grading essays from my English classes. Found a couple today that were plagerized. So discouraing.

Talk with you soon!