Nichole Nordeman--Every Season

Hi, everyone! Just taking a second to check in. I've finished three weeks of student teaching and only have five more days to go. Thank goodness! I can't believe I am almost finished with something that I have been dreading all summer. The kids have been fun but that's about it. I have felt successful in the experience but frustrated that ASU makes you pay so much tuition just to work you to death in a placement where you get limited guidance and learning. Just seems like a waste. But, hey...I guess that the lessons we learn in life aren't always what we were expecting. There's still always something to reflect and learn from. (And I've certainly learned a place that I *don't* want to work and the kind of teacher I *don't* want to be. Go figure!)

I've been thinking a lot lately about all the blessings that Brenan had in his life and the many ways that all of your prayers were answered in bringing him peace and joy. I've been thinking about a list that I want to write of all those things...things that many of you may not necessarily have known about...that show me how God was with us through Brenan's illness. I hope that everyone can feel that God listened to their heartfelt concerns and continues to listen to each of us now as we pray for healing and our own sense of peace. [That list to come in the future. Perhaps you will feel like adding your own thoughts to it as well.]

Until then, one of my favorite videos...reminding everyone that: for every Winter we have in our lives, there is always a Spring to come.

Nichole Nordeman--Every Season

Lyrics:

Every evening sky, an invitation to trace the patterned stars/And early in July, a celebration for freedom that is ours/And I notice You in children's games/In those who watch them from the shade/Every drop of sun is full of fun and wonder/You are summer.

And even when the trees have just surrendered to the harvest time/Forfeiting their leaves in late September and sending us inside/Still I notice You when change begins and I am braced for colder winds/I will offer thanks for what has been and what's to come/You are autumn.

And everything in time and under heaven finally falls asleep/Wrapped in blankets white, all creation shivers underneath/And still I notice you when branches crack and in my breath on frosted glass/Even now in death, You open doors for life to enter/You are winter.

And everything that's new has bravely surfaced teaching us to breathe/What was frozen through is newly purposed turning all things green/So it is with You and how You make me new with every season's change/And so it will be as You are re-creating me/Summer, autumn, winter, spring.