Sweet 16's and Victories

Tomorrow is my birthday, I'll be officially sweet! I'm super excited because I have a lot of fun things planned. But besides that, I have some awesome news. The final decisions in court were written up and I was given the decision concerning my own education, meaning I can home-school again! Talk about answered prayers, this seemed like a complete miracle to me. It was totally unexpected. I guess I've been thinking about it for so long that I really never imagined anything could change. Thank you everyone for your prayers. I am truly grateful. All I could think about when I got the news was this quote by M.L.K. Jr. He says: “Free at last, Free at last, Thank God almighty we are free at last.”  A flood of relief seeped through me and it all felt so surreal. Though I have not yet switched out of public school, the knowledge that I can whenever I wish is giving me strength. A whole new world of opportunities has been opened. And it's not just a dream, it's for real; I have to keep telling myself that. I simply can not express my happiness. God really does answer our prayers.

Today I can not think what to write on any one specific topic. A lot of things will be changing for me, hopefully for the better, and I know I'll still be on rocky road but I believe that that's the life of a Christian. If everything was easy there would be no reason for trust. God calls us to have child-like faith. I just realised that I rather confused that statement by using both trust and faith consecutively which makes me wonder are they the same thing? According to the online dictionary, faith is "complete trust or confidence in someone or something" or the religious version, "strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof." While trust is defined as "firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something." See they overlap in a way, because trust is used in the definition of faith. So they're similar, yet different. Faith I think is more something to have in Christ, whereas trust is something we achieve through faith. With all this court stuff, it's not the faith I need to work on, because I know God has a higher plan, it's the trust with the when, why, and how. 

Constantly I'll sit around praying when when when? It must be obnoxious how little trust I have. If after a week nothing has happened, I tend to give up, thinking oh well, it's never going to happen. The knowledge that God has a plan for me doesn't go beyond that sometimes. I mean that I don't always believe it in my heart that it's possible for him to accomplish things that seem far fetched to me, which is ridiculous because he is so much greater than us. The fact that the results of court came as a shock means I was expecting nothing good to come of it. Except God was in charge all along and rescued me, not just barely, but with victory and triumph. He was the ultimate judge, he gave the final ruling to set me free of father's stubbornness. After these five long and hard years, I have been answered. And not only that, but I have been so strengthened through my experiences that I am excited to see where I'll be going next. I need to stop asking when and just believe that all will be revealed at the proper time, however long it might take.

With my new-found freedom I hope to practice my instruments more, write more, read more, learn more, and I will strive to be encouraging to others. I might even audit a Greek class at the college, something I've wanted to do for years but never had the time before. I am so happy I had today off of school to sort thinks through and have a relaxing weekend. September birthdays are the best!

I have two verses for the week this time because I missed last Friday accidentally.
Philippians 4:13 
I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
Hebrew 11:1
Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.