REFLECTIONS

Today as I sat in my classroom of Early Child Development in Merced, CA for the ROP (Regional Occupational Program) as a substitute teacher I had plenty of time for reflection. The class is small, 11 adults are currently signed up for program. These students are very motivated and they are within various stages of the program. For the most part they work independently on their laptops. Due to COVID substitute teachers are not in great demand. So, I welcome the opportunity to sub in this class. The teacher and the district have strict COVID protocols in place.

I will write today about my overwhelming and most dominate thoughts about what I was reflecting on. If you are familiar with any of my other writings that are posted on The One-Minute Prisoner website your might see that I have a strong passion for truth, and finding out more how we can learn God’s will for our life. There are hundreds of clues on this in the Bible, and although I’m of mature age physically, spiritually I still have a long way too go.

But I do believe all the answers about anything: relationships, love, marriage, family, work, recreation, and so on can be found in the Bible. Anyway, for me it’s important to find out God’s will for my life now. I’m retired. I’ve had two successful careers one in the United States Air Force (24 years), and the second career in teaching most of it for the Department of Correction (22 years). Now because I’m in those twilight years it’s important for me to insure I’m doing my best to fulfill Go’s plan for me.

So, back to my dilemma, how do I insure I’m doing God’s will and not my own on the next stage of my life? I’ve spent most of my adult life doing the things I wanted or needed to do. I didn’t check-in with God very much; so, I’m not sure how close I came to living out what God had planned for me. But, I know I can do better when I start conforming my activities to the will of God. I plan in the future to take much more time involving God, and asking if I do this or that will this be what he wants me to do?

For sure I don’t have a lock yet on how best to do this, because all my life I’ve gotten so used to deciding for myself, and asking my wife for her input. But now I will include God in my decisions, and I will ask God for his input. The key for me and many others trying to conform their lives to God’s will is to be patient and listen, feel, see, and search for God’s sign as he communicates back to us. God loves us and will always answer our request. The hard part for me will be picking up and being aware of the message he has sent me. Since his response can take many forms: an impulse we might get, a gut feeling, an intuition, an insight. If it’s an obvious sign that would be great, but I suspect that would be rare.

For me since I meditate every mourning that would be a good time, but that might be to obvious. The best thing would be to stay aware throughout the day, and probably when least expected God will give us a sign of some sort that will give us a clue of what he would like us too do

When I get this figured out I’ll share more with you, but until then I still have a lot to work on. If you have any experience with this I’d love to hear from you. Until the next time, love and blessings. Carbie