Confirming My Calling

I have mentioned here before that I want to pursue a degree in marriage and family counseling, and that I have been accepted into a graduate program.  I still don't know how I will pay for it, but I have to share some exciting things that have happened lately.

Recently, I've been wavering, thinking that because the cost of the degree is so high, maybe I should forget about it, go to school and pick up whatever classes I need to be certified, and become a teacher.  I enjoy teaching, I love middle school and high school kids, and it would be a steady income with good hours for a mom. 

But even though his would be the logical, safe path to take, I wondered why I had previously felt so certain that God was calling me into marriage and family counseling if I was now supposed to forget about that and go into teaching.  So I asked God to let me know what He wanted me to do. 

Since asking Him, I have had several interesting things happen.

First, a friend of mine asked me for advice on dealing with in-laws whose attitudes and behavior might be negatively affecting her children.

Then I had a divorced friend pour out her anger and other emotions surrounding her divorce to me, because she knew I would understand.

Today, one of the ladies in my core group at Community Bible Study shared that a comment I made early in the year had spurred her on to submitting to her husband more intentionally than she had in the past, and she said since she has been doing so, she has seen a real improvement in her marriage.

Then this evening, a total stranger sat and talked to me about a parenting problem she is having.

Oh, and one other confirmation:  at CBS this morning, a friend in my core gorup pressed some money into my hand and said, "It isn't much, but I want to help you out financially with your schooling."  Later, when I unfolded the money, I realized that the amount she had given me is exactly the amount of the deposit that is due to the school on May 10!

Obviously, God is answering my question by confirming His calling in my life.

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.  Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,  I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.  (Philippians 3:12-14 NIV)