Hi. I am Stephanie Iglesias, a sophomore at Hanover College. Before I begin to share a little about the All-Mighty Man upstairs, I would like to share two personal stories with you.
I am a 20-year-old blessed with the opportunity to play soccer for the women’s team and to be a member of the Chi Omega Upsilon Lambda Chapter here at Hanover College. This past year, I joined the staff of Hanover College Dance Marathon as a committee member of the Moral team, the Panther Philanthropy Committee, LINK (Love Is Needed by Kids: an organization that provides mentors for elementary aged kids), the Adopt-A-Grandparent program and I was also elected Vice President and Scholarship Chair of Chi Omega. At first, I truly believed there was no way I could handle the responsibilities of being the vice president of something that was much bigger than I was. Could I juggle playing soccer and the other organizations I became involved in, and succeeding in my aspiration to be an engineer someday? With all of this on my plate, I turned to God and prayed for strength, patience, and a large Jendy’s pizza (a local pizzeria that is very popular especially when you are feeling stressed) to help me through this year. I know everything happens for a reason and God does not give you more than what He truly believes you can handle.
Four months later, I’ve grown in ways I never thought I could. As VP of Chi Omega, this position has pushed me to work hard academically; my classes are going great and my GPA is higher than it has ever been. The Hanover Women’s Soccer team won the Heartland Conference tournament (for the third year in a row). To top this year off, I was blessed with two sweet as can be little LINK buddies, Tommy and Cody, and one wise, kind hearted ole’ soul, Grandma Ms. Bettler.
God, you did it again, blessing me with more than I deserve! You see that’s how God works; in mysterious, yet purposeful ways.
The second story involves a little more of my personal life. I am one of four kids, and a twin if I may add. I was blessed with two of the most understanding, supportive, loving parents by the names of Walter and Rhonda Iglesias. My dad is from Lima, Peru and my mom is from Hardinsburg, Indiana. (How did they meet? That’s another great story for another day!) My whole life, my parents pushed my sisters, brother, and me to do the best in everything we do and raised us to love and care for others. When Selena (my twin) and I went to college, we were a tad worried financially about attending a private college, but my parents said that they would do whatever it takes to send their children to the top notch college for the best education possible. Our first year went great!
Going into our second year, a couple of family issues arose. Now when I say that money has been tight, I am not complaining by any means, but simply stating a fact. My mom decided to pick up a second job at Amazon during the Christmas rush to help with extra bills and my dad went to Peru to help with a family issue. My mom truly didn’t mind working two jobs, but she began to feel a bit under the weather, hindering her from living an average Rhonda day. She decided that working two jobs wasn’t worth the extra cash especially since it was affecting her medically so she decided it was time to put in her two weeks’ notice. On the drive, she started to doubt her decision to quit and tried to convince herself that a couple more weeks of work wouldn’t hurt. She began to look through her car in search of a snack and while looking, she closed the car door and realized that not only did she not have a snack, but she had accidentally locked her keys in the car. She took this as a sign from God to slow down, listen to God, not get distracted and to have faith that He will take care of us. This was all she needed to know that God was in control, to trust Him and to go ahead and put in her two weeks’ notice.
As humans, we tend to believe that because we were blessed with two hands, that we can take any situation into our own hands and control some of the uncontrollable things in life. With this mentality, we sometimes overwhelm ourselves. However, the All-Mighty God is much stronger than us and any situation that we encounter throughout our life. This All-Mighty God only gives us situations and opportunities that He believes we can handle and helps us when the load gets too heavy. I believe that sometimes we just forget or are too proud to let God help us.
This is where I’d like to imagine that God’s got His hand on the thermostat of your trial. He knows how hot the fire can get and He knows where your breaking point is. Trusting Him as much as He trusts you will get you through life’s lessons in which He has prepared for you. God knew I could handle taking on the many tasks that accompanied the organizations I became a part of and knew that medically, working a second job even if temporarily isn’t something my mom could handle. It’s comforting to know that there is someone out there that is so powerful, loving, and caring that is in control of your life that you can trust to help keep your life in check. Knowing that God’s hand is on the thermostat of my trials is reassuring so that when I can handle more, He’ll turn up the opportunities and push me to do more and believe that I can; when I can’t, He’ll turn it down and allow me, or in the instance above, my mom, to relax and have faith.
When opportunities present themselves, take it. Take it and have faith that with God’s will, He will push you and allow you to grow and learn with these opportunities. As soon as things get tough, pray for strength, look for love and comfort and pray for God to turn down the thermostat as soon as things get too overwhelming. Until then, turn down the worries and turn up the faith!
