The White and Colorful Bookshelf

               God works in so many ways and you don’t even realize it until you reflect on your life decisions. Now, I am only 27 so there haven’t been too many life decisions ... or at least they didn’t feel like these big gloomy life decisions. I would say the first big decision I had to make was college. With a dad as a farmer and a mom who stayed home to raise my sister and me, they didn’t have money to send me off. I was looking at the local community college since we got a discounted price with our high school, however, I felt like I needed to go and just see what some of the schools could offer me. I was a good student and had a 97.3 grade point average in high school (I know, very exact but I am proud of that!). 
            That is where I found good old Kutztown University. I loved that school since I was little. We used to go to antique fairs there every year with the parents and the university was right up the street. It almost felt like a second home to me before I even went to school. Kutztown had the degree I wanted and would give me a tuition scholarship. It was almost like fate…
            I met my love at Kutztown. As soon as I saw him I thought he was so cute. We were both dating someone else but I couldn’t help to wonder if he noticed me. It took a few years of friendship and one party for him to make a move. By that point we were both single and had helped each other through the break ups. I still look at him sometimes and think “How did I get so lucky as to end up with one of my best friends”. But it wasn’t luck, it was God. He guided me to go to Kutztown. He gave me the feeling of needing to go to the party where we had our first kiss. 
            Tyler and I started dating and I would go with him to Abington some weekends. We went to the movies and I found shelves for sale at a nearby store. They were old display shelves but exactly what I needed! Ugly old laminate, but I thought “well I can paint those and make them cute”. Needless to say, they sat in my room at college without being touched for a year. I forgot how school took almost every waking second of my time. They even got rained on when the pipes burst in the apartment above me! But they did not get ruined. 
            A few years later, God spoke to me again. I had enrolled in Kutztown for a secondary education degree, but one day my professor brought me into his office and told me, “you are too smart for education”. I didn’t know how to take it. I wanted to teach so I could share my knowledge. But after much prayer and a leap of faith, I switched majors to see what would be waiting for me on the other side. As I approached my final year, I was faced with “what do I do next?” Grad school was the obvious choice since I liked the research I was doing and I always loved school. Although by that point, I was sick of school. I just wanted to go make money. But despite the feelings, I applied to 12 schools. That was like $1200 worth of applications! But I just knew I would get into at least 2 of them and could choose. Well, after several rejections, I finally got my acceptance to Lehigh University. I was so excited I replied right away and thanked them for accepting me. What they replied to me was traumatic. It was all a mistake. I was not accepted. I was not even on the waiting list. They got me mixed up with another girl.
            I couldn’t believe it. I was not going to grad school. What was I to do? Well, God told me. A friend invited me to a career fair. The first company I talked to said they had the perfect position. I interviewed over the phone and we barely talked about my skills. We mostly talked about the Lehigh Valley area! I didn’t know if I should take the job. It was contract work for DoD (Department of Defense) and I had no idea what that meant. I prayed and God said “what do you have to lose”. So, I took the job, moved to Abington with my love, and brought my book shelf with me. I finally had time to work on it. This was great! School was a 20-hour a day job, but work was until 5 and then do whatever you want after. I painted the bookshelf white and got artistic. I had a stencil and a variety of blue paints. It was so nice to come home and have something to work on. I loved giving it life again. God showed me yet again something that I was meant to do. 

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          Shortly after I started working the desk job, I was feeling like I had no time and no control. I kept finding furniture projects that helped me to feel excited and looking forward to spending time on them. The bookshelf was the gateway to the next chapter in my life and I didn’t even know it. Now, I am starting to learn and understand why God has me here and where he wants me to go. I am also learning that it is ok for it to take some time. Those shelves sat in my room for two years before I started to work on them. Just like a seed needs time to sprout, God has a few seeds planted for all of us and we just need to be patient and persistent enough to tend and care for these seeds until they grow.