The Skinner Family Adventures

New Season

        So I just finished nine wonderful and fun years in the Navy as of April first, got married almost two years ago and moved to a new city...I guess that qualifies as a "new season".  I think it's important to notice when we are moving into a new season of our lives.  Why, aren’t we still living the same life, just another day, another job, another year?  However, when you start something new, you often do not have a lot of experience at it or maybe you don’t have a “view” for what IT is supposed to look like. 

In a new season, you often do not know how to proceed, much less succeed.  If you are used to knowing how to act or feel on a given “normal” day, you suddenly find yourself trying to figure out how to react to the new season life.  How do I proceed?  How do I start my day?  How do I excel (when you are used to excelling in your past season)?  Great questions, but these are the things that cause amazing amounts of anxiety and stress and fear (in me too!).   My great friend David told me recently, “You have never been here before.  This is a new place.”  He was right!  I have never been out of the Navy.  I have never had to look for a job.  I have always had my days pretty well planned out for me because of the familiarity of the last season.  What David was telling me is that God provides grace and mercy for being in new territory.  Lamentations 3:22-23 says, ‘The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning great is your faithfulness.”  Every new day/season has new grace and mercy to accomplish it!  Don’t be hard on yourself because you aren’t able to run at full speed yet, it’s a new season.  Receive from God the grace and mercy required to have PEACE as you begin anew.  Without peace, you are in extreme danger of losing your JOY and happiness (nothing good comes from losing your peace). 

So I am in a new season.  HA!  Woohoo!  I do have to constantly remind myself though that I can take it slow and don’t have to know what I will do today.  I’ve been looking for a job since I got here, but I’m not worried.  God has always taken care of me in every situation and I doubt he is picking this month to change something he has done for eternities, hahahah!  By the way, I don’t like typing “lol”, it has no emotion, “bwhaahaaahahaa” says so much more, don’t you think? 

Since I don’t have a job, I have enrolled and was accepted at the Bethel School of Worship. It’s a three week school that teaches all aspects of worship and musicianship from acoustic guitar technique to vocals to painting (which is also a form of worshipping God).  The day is 10am to 5pm so I will be busy.  I will still be visiting the places I have applied to but if I don’t get a job until after the school is over, I won’t be disappointed.  I have wanted to attend this school for a couple years now.  It has around 400 students and has a number of really talented musicians teaching the classes. 

Life is good!  Jessica and I are making a ton of great friends and doing well.  We should be floating down the Sacramento River tomorrow on some rafts with some friends (never done that before!).  We love all our family and friends out there praying for us and believing in us!  We need all your love!

Jesse
(I hope to talk more about how my dreams have changed in this newness!)

posted by Jesse Skinner @ 12:20 PM