I’m an art teacher!

Well, this is a long over due post. I have put off writing it for awhile (which I’ll get to) and I wasn’t sure how to go about it. But basically I wanted to update you all on what I have been up to!

As you know, my husband is a pastor which means we moved to a new city awhile back. And to be candid with you, the city we moved to doesn’t have much going on. It is centralized around the auto industry and therefore is essentially factories and then service industries (chain restaurants, Walmart, Meijer, etc.). There are essentially no marketing firms, no corporate headquarters, and frankly not much culture. So as we have lived here I have really struggled to find my “dream job”. We originally moved for my husband’s job, so I knew we were here for a reason, but I wrestled with God to understand why I hadn’t found a a good fit yet. I worked in couple of small positions around town but, as an achiever and a business graduate, I felt so dissapointed as my future seemed different than I anticipated in college.

Well fast forward to this past fall, after some long seasons, I finally gave up. I told God that exhausted and discouraged - and that he just had to take the wheel because I was done. I wasn’t hearing from him, and all my plans and my efforts had gotten me nowhere. And to be honest with you, I decided to spend a couple of weeks just unemployed and not working at all (other than some small graphic design work). And that was kind of embarrassing for me. But I share that to hopefully provide comfort to you if you are maybe in the same place. Please know, you aren’t alone. As my husband continued working - I spent those weeks in prayer. In the silent moments alone in our home I spent time praying in my “prayer spot”. I spent time listening. I spent time hearing God’s truth and filling my afternoons reading on our patio. I finally stopped sprinting on this treadmill to nowhere (that I created) and just sat with God.

I might share more in the future of all that God taught me during those weeks, but the biggest thing was that in those moments he met me, asking me the question “Who told you that Kaitlin?”. I came suddenly to the realization that I had all these expectations for myself, and was working my butt off trying to find my “perfect future” for just… myself. God had never said I had to have some amazing corporate job or business career. He didn’t say that at all actually. Instead, he met me in the silence and stillness and reminded me of the truth. That he sees things differently. And so in that season I repeated Micah 6:8 over and over: What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.”

Which brings to me to the closest thing I have experienced to a miracle in quite some time.

I was in this season of listening and handing the wheel back to God. During this time I was talking with a woman at church, that I hadn’t talked with much, and through the conversation she said “Hey, you seem kind of artsy… would you ever consider being an art teacher?”. Now if you know me, you know I love design and I love working with kids (which you can probably even tell through my website). I also love teaching and trying to explain things to people in a way that they will understand them. So I was like literally floored. An art teacher? I would love that. As a Marketing, Management, and Systems major, I just never thought or even considered that I would be able to teach students one of my favorite things: art! But guys… that is just how God works. In crazy ways. He knows our desires. Our exact, weirdly specific, desires. Our dream job desires. And he has those in store for us. He cares for us.

So this fall I haven’t posted as much because I am officially TEACHING ART for K- 8th graders! I e. I get to teach the kids about art principles (color, texture, 3D, 2D), famous artists through different time periods (baroque, impressionism, renaissance, and so much more!), and most of all how we are a piece of art created by God. That we have a larger Creator who so deeply cares for us. So much so he sent his son.

I have been a bit hesitant to share this because I have a love/hate relationship with social media. I just think it can be so filled with bragging, so I wanted to clearly communicate that I am sharing this to not only update my extended family about what I’m doing (Hi Grandma!), but to also encourage you if you maybe aren’t in your dream job right now, or if you feel like you haven’t been able to hear God much either.

I share this to give all that GLORY TO GOD and to emphasize the season of difficutly before this amazing blessing. During those weeks I was so desperately trying, by own will, to make things work. I think without realizing it, I had tried to push out God a bit. In that season I felt like I couldn’t hear God. That he wasn’t speaking to me. And I figured… if he wouldn’t talk to me then I would just figure it out on my own. Of course, I still was worshiping him and still called him my Savior, but I think I got this point where I thought he didn’t care about the small details of my life. He didn’t seem to show up when I prayed.

But I am posting to tell you that if you slow down, and really slow down, HE IS THERE. He is so close guys. There is a Bethel song that says he is “closer than the very oxygen we’re breathing in”. And I love that. That God isn’t “out there”. He is Emmanuel. He is God with us. He is sitting next to us as we, out of breath, desperately grab the steering wheel of life and slam on the gas to get … wherever we think we are going.

But I want to encourage you that if you are in that season, of feeling like you don’t know where he is, to rest. Stop the car that is zooming out of control and sit with God. He is a GOOD God who is patiently waiting for us to hand the wheel back to him. If I’m honest, I think I hadn’t heard him because I didn’t really want to. I was so focused on my steps and my plans that I didn’t trust him beyond all else. And for awhile I thought it was working.. until I realized I was so, so lost. I finally just stopped and handed it to God. And that was the moment an (almost) stranger says “Are you artsy” and connected me with the job of my dreams.

God is a miracle working God folks. The God who performed miracles in the Bible- yeah, he is the same God now. He isn’t a God who has changed. He was and is the same I AM. He knows your heart. The unique desires of your heart. He cares deeply for you. As it says in Jeremiah 29:11 - “For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” He doesn’t promise that it won’t be difficult. He doesn’t say that we won’t experience pain because of sin. But he does promise to be there for us. He is the same God of Joshua who says: “Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."

So that is what I have been up to! Who knows, I may post some projects on here on what I’ve been teaching, but it is such. an. honor. God is so, so good. And I am in love with teaching students about creating and our amazing CREATOR this semester!