What I look forward to most is that I coach with two really incredible girls who both really love the Lord and desire to love on our girls with that love. Ashley, the JV coach, started at AHS with me this year, so we're both getting to experience our first year of teaching together. That in itself has been a blessing...because the first year is a beating. Not because your kids aren't wonderful...I LOVE my kids, but because starting anything new is a challenge, and when they stick you in a room and tell you to go for it...you're asking yourself, "who thought sticking a 22 year old, straight out of college into a classroom would even kind of be a good idea?" They really need to start a program that requires your mom to be your mentor in your classroom that first year.
On top of just getting to experience our first year together as teachers and coaches, we've built a really strong relationship that started mainly because we both desire to be close with God. Be Completely His. Ashley, oddly enough, has gone through the same situation I am going through now about two years ago. Ending an engagement. We've talked about this several times before, and I know she sees it as a blessing in so many ways now, so I hope she doesn't mind me sharing this with you. I say this because, I love that in so many ways, God gives us His children to bless us. And before you and I, God gave Jesus, you and me, as an inheritance. I'm going to share with you my favorite passage in the Bible from John.
John 17.
"Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: 'Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I have glorified You on earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Ne together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was."
I love this passage because I believe it to be the most intimate conversation we see in the Bible between Jesus and the Father. It is Jesus' prayer before the crucifixion. I see it as an incredible blessing that God even allows us to read these words. Jesus knew that He was Completely His. I also find it interesting that this passage correlates perfectly back to the scripture in Romans that we too would be glorified with Christ in our suffering. After Jesus prays for himself, he goes on to pray for His disciples and you and I.
"I do not pray for these alone, (speaking of His disciples) but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given then, that they may be one just as We are one...O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You' and these have known that You sent me."
My desire is to be Completely His. In everything I do, I want to be wholly and completely His. I don't know what or how I am going to get there, but what I do know is that I have the faith, only by His grace, that He will complete a good work in me. And because before you and I were brought into this world, Jesus prayed that prayer before giving His life on the cross so that you and I would know the Father in heaven as Jesus knew Him, and was made perfect in Him. It was His prayer. And now because Christ lives in you, if you have repented and called upon His name that you might be saved through the power of the Holy Spirit, it was His prayer for you as well that you might be Completely His.
Know that your name was given to Jesus as an inheritance from the Father the day he carried the cross. He already loved you then, and He loves you today with a perfect love.
What a glorious God we serve.
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