Oklahoma Part 1: Perfect Peace

In The Gap (ITG) Training -- I don't think I remember a week flying by so quickly! It was spent in the lodge at Eagle Springs, a beautiful place west of Tulsa in the country -- really, the country! I would sit on the porch for morning devotions and listen to the cows mooing in the field across the road, then go for a walk at night and watch glow bugs and listen to the coyotes howl at the moon! Yes, I loved it! But don't worry, I paid attention to the training sessions too! Everything from school relations, lesson planning and research, object lessons, song leading, student praise and correction, and many others.

The class that stands out was story telling. Our assignment was to tell a story without using words, only gestures, sounds, and body movement. Everyone else had to guess what the story was. There was lots of laughter, and yes, we got them on tape! In the midst of training, having fun with the other interns and home work, we always started the day with an extended amount of time alone with the Lord. I appreciated that time to recharge spiritually and put my focus where it needed to be. During one of those morning meditations I was reading Isa. 26:3 'Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee." I asked, "Lord, what is perfect peace?" He gave me a picture. A still lake, crystal clear, no wind, not a ripple on its surface. But a storm brewed in the distance. As the menacing clouds rolled in, the trees on the shore of the lake began to bend and sway in the wind, leaves skipped across the shoreline, pushed by the wind, littering the beautiful scene, but the lake stayed as still as ever. It was still crystal clear, the water never trembled, or marred the image it reflected. It never took notice of the tumult around it because it was stayed on one thing, and that one thing never moves. "That," Said the Lord, "Is perfect peace!"