Last week was full of emotional "stuff" at our house. Balancing my heart issues with real-world work stress did not come easily. Thursday I knew that the only way I was going to survive the next three weeks of intense math classes was to bring home a stack of textbooks, notebooks, and test results and come up with a plan. I wouldn't be telling the truth if I said the night was totally enjoyable. I found myself in tears by about 9:30 p.m. as I struggled to pull together exactly what I felt my students were lacking and match that with the right teaching materials.

I ordered this book while I was home recovering from surgery, and I've just started reading it.......I'm loving what I'm learning! Here's another book I ordered.

In this book I learned a few great questions to ask kids.

When was the last time you saw math? (a window pane might visualize three times two)
When was the last time you ate math? (maybe estimating the amount of cereal in their bowl and or how much milk they used)

When was the last time you heard math? (on the news in statistics, on the weather channel with temperatures rising or dropping)

The more I dive into math, the more I realize that life truly is all about math........

I remember being a math student.

I remember looking into my teacher's eyes and thinking, "When will I ever use this?"

I remember feeling so excited when I solved a tough problem and so frustrated when I couldn't figure something out.

I remember having my dad help me with math problems and watching him turn everything into an algebraic expression....At the time I think this made me feel more confused but the truth was this: My dad knew that in order to solve any problem you had to find an unknown variable.

Isn't life like a huge math problem?

God set our world in motion in 6 days. He rested on 1. That gives us a week of 7 days.

Book after book of the Bible is filled with numbers...there's even a book called Numbers.

But more than all the ages listed in the Bible, measurements given in the Bible, and events marked by definite lengths of time in the Bible, I think a very important part of the story is the part that could be written as an "x."

The "x" represents the "unknown variable" in life.

While we face an unknown future, I believe the true "variable" in all of life is us.

We change our life equation by the choices we make and the roads we choose to walk down.

God is the Constant. He never changes.

Events in our life may be marked by different hours, days, and years.

And all kinds of outside factors will affect us as we travel through our life journey.

But the real question is:

When we place God in our formula combined with all of these changing factors, what will be the product?

In other words, how will we turn out?

Who are we? Really?

It's really up to us.

Take God out of our equation, and I do know this.

We are left with only things that change. No certainties. No guarantees.

As I have plowed through a very stressful week in my life, a lot of things have happened that I cannot control.

I am so thankful that my stress always meets my reality.

The reality that I have a Constant in my life.

Math books come and go.

State standards change.

Life is filled with so many events that do not make sense at all.

If you are on a search for what does makes sense, I'd love to introduce you to the One who has the answers.

No need for a calculator to solve this problem.

Just open your Bible and ask God to speak through His Words.

He longs to show you all the answers!

Psalm 48:14
For this is God, our God forever and ever; He will be our guide even to death.

Psalm 73:24
You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.

Psalm 119:105
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.