“Patience is a virtue.”
It has been a while since I’ve posted any original content on here, and I am sorry about that. Thank you for having patience with me as I learned about patience and am now able to write this post.
As many of you know through knowing me closely, reading this blog, or from conversations we may have had, I have been “in between jobs” for the past year or so. Long story short, I left Oklahoma and my coaching job at Cameron last May with the hopes of landing a job as a Director of Operations somewhere over the summer. This did not come to fruition and I was placed in a position of the “what now?” mindset. I lived abroad, I lived at home with my parents, and I simply lived day to day for possibly the first time in my life.
Instead of thinking “what now?” in the way many people believe it to be of thinking, “What am I doing?”, “Why can’t I get a job?”, “Will I ever get a job?”, I chose to live in the “What now, God?” mindset instead. I was done making plans and decided to fully rely on Him to guide me. Now, of course I am human and this wasn’t a 100% of the time mindset, but I relied on faith and His strength to carry me through the times of questioning. They were luckily very brief and were taken away as quickly as they had come.
So, through this mindset I had finally been able to acquire, what did I learn the most? You guessed it, PATIENCE!! The trait that has been alluding me for probably my entire life. Instead of landing my “dream job” I found myself as a substitute teacher sitting in a class of chatty 4th graders. In a resource classroom helping students read four grades below where they should be. I found myself in a foreign country interacting daily with a seven year old boy whom I couldn’t understand, and who couldn’t understand me. In place of a job working with elite college athletes, I found myself coaching a group 2nd-4th grade girls (who had more pent up energy than any kids I have ever met).
Ultimately, God had told me, rather He YELLED at me, “Kayla, listen here. I know you have all these plans in your little plan everything out just the way you want it head, but I have greater plans for you. First, though, I am gonna teach you a little patience.” And I am determined he was smiling and giggling along the way as I shook my head at middle school boys, said “nevermind” to misunderstanding Germans, and placed my hands on a 3rd grade girl’s shoulders just so she would stop running around and listen to what I was trying to teach her. If you don’t believe our Father has a sense of humor, just check out a coach teaching college athletes, and then watch them attempt to coach youth basketball…
It was trying. It was tough. I was emotional at times. I felt lost. I felt found. I lived. And most importantly I learned.
About 3 weeks ago I was offered and accepted a Director of Operations position at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX. Yes, I FINALLY landed my “dream job”, and I could not feel more blessed and thankful. Here is the thing though, I would be thankful had I not received it, because through my experiences over the past year I have learned and grown so much more than I ever would have had I given up, or lived how I was living only worrying about the future. The job is just the icing on the cake that God gave me the recipe to bake.
I pray that I continue to give thanks, ask for guidance, and the chance to learn patience more and more every day. I still have so much to learn and accomplish. This is just the beginning. It is often when we finally get what we want that we forget who gave us that gift.
We lose the gift that God has in store for us when we seek out our own.
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