Under His Grace

Where do I start? Well, I'm a new teacher. I've only been teaching for 4 measly months and to be honest, I feel like I'm back in school everyday. I fear for my life when I break a school rule and when I forget to do something, I still get that queasy feeling in the pit of my tummy like my principal is going to bark at me for being a dimwit. So basically, I haven't really grown up and manifested my adulthood.

Recently however, I signed up as an Adult Server in DARE, our youth group in New Creation Church and by the Lord's favour and grace, I was given the appointment immediately after my interview. There's a youth camp coming up on Nov the 27th and being teachers, we have to come down to school for the 1st two weeks of the school holidays. Jang Jang...that meant that I would not be able to attend the camp. Thankfully I only had to come back till the morning of the 28th which meant that I could take a bus down to the camp at KL, one day late. But....Jang Jang again... I was notified by one of the leaders that I needed to leave Singapore on the 28th morning so that I wouldn't miss out on the important activities planned for kids that afternoon. It was a major bummer for me as I knew this would require me to speak to my Boss...the Principal. I went around asking teachers how she would react if I requested to be excused for the whole of the 28th, missing a sharing session by our Full Time School Counsellor and they all had this 'you are doomed' look written on their foreheads as they spelled out the many times she had declined their requests....no matter how valid they were. One teacher even lamented that upon requesting for an excuse due to her niece's engagement, the Principal had asked her to ask her niece to change the date of the engagement. Har Har.

Nevertheless, I recalled Pastor's sermon on being under the Lord's grace so I plucked up my courage and decided to head down to see the Principal today which happens to be a school holiday for teachers and students but not Principals and Administrative staff of the school. When I entered the General Office, my hair was standing on end and the admin staff started cooling me down because they could see how nervous I was. To cut to the chase before your attention wanes, I placed myself and my Principal under the Lord's grace as Pastor instructed us to do, and walked into her office. When I made my request to my Principal, she did not even bat an eyelid. She asked what I had to be excused for and she agreed with a short, "Hmmmm...OK but don't broadcast it to anyone!" I was so happy I almost hugged her. She neither scolded me nor made me feel bad about it unlike what the older teachers had warned me. I had my mom, aunty and boyfriend praying in the background for me and boy did it work.

The funny thing about this testimony is how I still can't believe how easy it was and how fooled I've always been about my ability to ask and be given. When we ask of the Lord, especially when we are doing it to serve Him, He is always willing to bless us and see to it that we get our desires. Pastor said that when we start saying the words "Lord, I may not deserve it but I am under Your grace" that some of us might see our results immediately. After my brother Aaron used these words after losing his handphone, he miraculously found it. And now I see the same miraculous results. I am most definitely under His grace and I've never felt so loved and safe in His arms as I do right now. Praise God.