Blessed be Your name!

I'm so beyond tired that I'm gonna make this short so I can get to bed, but I feel the need to share the praise on my heart real quick.

I keep thinking of the song that says, "You give and take away. You give and take away. My heart will choose to say, Lord blessed be Your name!"

It's been a day of lots of ups and downs - emotional in many ways. I've gone through more emotions than I can explain, but I've known through it all that God is faithful and has a plan for my life. I had an interview this morning for a position I would really like. I felt like some parts of the interview went really well, other parts not so strong for me. So, I was nervous and excited. I got back out to the car after the interview and my mom informed me that my dad had just found out he does have cancer after all. He had surgery last week and ended up not having the tumor or his kidney removed because they said it was not cancer. Mayo says it is. We knew this was a possibility from the beginning, but I was so thrilled to hear the doctor report after the surgery last week and to leave it at that! What a blow today's news was! So back he has to go again for another surgery to remove it. My students were good today. It was a rough day to get through with so many questions, particularly why's running through my head. But the grace of God got me through. I had a wonderful and blessed dinner with Mallory at the spur of the moment. It'd been such a crazy day, I just didn't want to be alone - I wanted a friend. God provided! I was so blessed by our dinner! I got a phone call and quickly listened to the voicemail right as we got to dinner. It was the principal calling to talk more about the position. That's all he said and said he'd have to call back later because he would be in meetings for the next two hours. That was at 5:00pm. So as I got home right as 7:00pm rolled around I waited patiently or more like quite anxiously for his phone call - I was nervous though that he might be calling to turn me down. But, he didn't call. So I kept busy by doing a ridiculous amount of cleaning the dishes, and then gave the cat a bath. I have a crazy cat, like I'm pretty sure is clinically crazy, so why I thought attempting a bath was a good idea is beyond me - we'll just say I'm pretty sure the cat won that battle as I appeared more wet than him in the end. I was exhausted (the chronic fatigue syndrome is still on a bad spurt) so I figured I'd head to bed when 8:30pm (yes I truly am that lame and could have gone to bed that early) rolled around. Just then, the phone rang! I was offered the job!

The Lord has given and taken away. I've received so many blessings and good news lately! Yet, there is still the hard things. I don't understand why some things happen. It's frustrating to question why I have to deal with them. But my God is good and so much smarter than me! Haha! Sometimes I forget that :) But He is, and He is so faithful! Through it all, regardless, I will choose to say, "Lord, blessed be Your name!"

Love,
Jenna