this has been a great year!
a year ago today, i completed my master’s counseling internship with developmentally disabled sex offenders. that was such a wonderful and amazing experiencing and i learned a lot about myself and got wonderful counseling experience from amazing teachers!
shortly after completing my internship, i was able to get a job working as a vocational specialist case manager in ramsey county. it was not a great fit, since i did not have a lot of training in voc work, however, i was able to learn many of the resources in the area and get some more experience working with adults with severe and persistent mental illness.
in january, i was blessed with my current job, where i am working at a group home for adults with mental illness and chemical dependency. it is a great fit! i am able to lead the chemical dependency group and i am able to take clients on outings so i am able to see them in formal and informal settings which helps in building rapport.
i mentioned this in earlier posts, i found a church of young adults (www.rockthechurch.com) and strengthened my faith tremendously. i started walking with the Lord, reading my Bible daily, and increasing my prayer life. with this, i started to find healing from past wounds. i started to look forward to doing my daily devotions and i started to go to bed earlier on saturday nights so that i could make it to church on sunday mornings (at woodbury lutheran – www.woodburylutheran.org and the edge – www.theedgecf.org).
two months and a day ago (may 15), i woke up and decided alcohol was no longer for me. i had the proverbial “one too many” the night before, due to a stressful week and woke up with a pounding headache. i thought back to a sermon i had heard from chip ingram (www.livingontheedge.org) on the radio. chip was talking about abraham (Genesis 22) where God asked him to sacrifice his son, isaac. chip speculated that God requested this of abraham because isaac had become an idol in his life. as you may recall, abraham was promised a son and told that he would have many descendants. he and his wife were getting up there in age and starting to doubt whether they would be able to have children. in response, abraham’s wife, sarah, had abraham sleep with her servant, hagar, and she conceived and gave birth to ishmael. then sarah became pregnant and gave birth to isaac, the son that God had promised him. the Lord was testing abraham’s faith and trust in Him and asked him to offer his one (and only – at least with his wife) son as a sacrifice. abraham was obedient and at the last minute an angel of the Lord grabbed his hand as he was about to kill isaac. so, chip asked his listeners to consider the “isaac’s” in their own life. is there something (good, bad, or neutral) that is preventing me from a relationship with God? is there something in my life that i am putting in place of God? is there something in my life that has such a stronghold in my heart that i would be unwilling to give it up if God asked? that morning, when i woke up with the pounding headache, i realized that if i were told that i could never have alcohol again that it would be something that i really would miss in my life and i almost grieved the loss. THAT was when i realized that i had an unhealthy relationship with alcohol. that was when i realized this may be something that is preventing me from being in relationship with God. that was when i decided it’s not for me.
i applied to several phd programs this year and was turned down. then i went on a hunt finding other ways that i could move/travel in the fall since i would not be going to school. i gave up on trying to do it all on my own and decided to spend a month and a half praying. that’s when i found the world race. and if i am able to raise $475 in the next two and a half months, and if the Lord still has this in His plan for me, that’s what i’ll be doing!
i am so excited about what i can learn about life and learn through others. i am so excited about what the Lord has in store. i want to praise His Holy Name and honor him with this upcoming 24th year of my life. thank you Jesus!!
