God All-Sufficient

I want to start this entry with a prayer written by the Puritans from "The Valley of Vision". Jose and I have been encouraged by the prayers in this book on many occasions. One of my favorites is as follows,

GOD ALL-SUFFICIENT

"O Lord of grace,
The world is before me this day,
and I am weak and fearful,
but I look to thee for strength;
If I venture forth alone I stumble and fall,
but on the Beloved's arms I am firm
as the eternal hills;
If left to the treachery of my heart
I shall shame thy Name,
but if enlightened, guided, upheld by thy Spirit,
I shall bring thee glory.
Be though my arm to support,
my strength to stand,
my light to see,
my feet to run,
my shield to protect,
my sword to repel,
my sun to warm.
To enrich me will not diminish thy fullness;
All thy lovingkindness is in thy Son,
I bring him to thee in the arms of faith,
I urge his saving Name as the One who died for me.
I plead his blood to pay my debts of wrong.
Accept his worthiness for my unworthiness,
his sinlessness for my transgressions,
his purity for my uncleanness,
his sincerity for my guile,
his truth for my deceits,
his meekness for my pride,
his constancy for my backslidings,
his love for my enmity,
his fullness for my emptiness,
his faithfulness for my treachery,
his obedience for my lawlessness,
his glory for my shame,
his devotedness for my waywardness,
his holy life for my unchaste ways,
his righteousness for my dead works,
his death for my life."



I can relate to starting the day feeling somewhat fearful and weak, yet going through the day only by God's strength. What a Savior we have that would die for us and give us all His benefits, when all I've done is deserving of hell!

Nursing proves to be challenging each shift. There are times when I get frustrated because I realize all that I have to get done and yet need the help of my preceptor and time is only running out. Time management is huge and it's a learning process. I hope that you all don't think I'm portraying nursing in a bad light...I really do enjoy it, but realize my weakness in it. I am now caring for 3 patients and the other day I felt as if I was just running around all day and not always doing what I was supposed to. All experienced (or more experienced than I) nurses say it gets better. I believe them - it's just going to take time.
Last week I was able to see an open heart surgery. It was amazing to see what they do! Basically they stop the patient's heart while doing surgery and pump blood and fluids through him/her via tubes and a machine so that life is maintained. It took 5-6 hours to complete the surgery. It's so neat to actually see a live heart beating. I was able to see a lot of the surgery up close, it's one of those once in a lifetime experiences. Now I can better understand what many of my patients have gone through or will go through.
Jose is starting to learn book-keeping for small businesses by QuickBooks and another program. He is excited about doing this because it serves other people, he loves numbers and it can be a source of extra income in the future. He's testing out his skills by helping a guy out who owns a store that sells scrubs (that I have given business to).
We're continuing to pray about the future and where God may lead us, especially in regards to Jose's desire to go to seminary and be a Navy Chaplain. We've been talking to our pastors about whether Sovereign Grace Ministries (http://www.sovereigngraceministries.org/)would be able and willing to ordain Jose to be a Chaplain. It's not an easy answer because no one has ever proposed this idea to SGM before and there is a process they would have to go through. Thankfully God guides our steps and as much as we'd like to know what the future holds, we don't need to right now.
Jose and I are signed up to run the La Jolla half Marathon on April 22. We decided the full marathon would probably be too much at this time because of my work schedule and adjusting to nights, besides the fact we aren't trained for it.
In a little over a week my Mom and Grandma will be coming to visit and I'm thrilled about it! We will have some time to enjoy each other's company in the beautiful California weather.