Congratulations to my Daughter

My daughter graduated today from the esthetics program in cosmetology school. We are proud of her and happy for her because she loves everything to do with this. Her biggest hope is to have the opportunity to be the makeup artist on additional films (she's done one - Thanks, Historymaker Films!!) and she'll be working to build her clientele for special occasion makeup, weddings, proms and such. And as soon as she passes her state board exams, she'll be looking for an opening in a spa to do facials and skin care.

The future is a bit daunting for her as she waits to see what opens up. But God has a plan.

Sometime back, I wrote about a young woman going through some tough times. That was my daughter. She made someone mad at school and the woman (40ish) waited two months to start acting mad and another couple of weeks before she told my daughter what the problem was. My daughter had apologized at the time of the occurrence, so this was a total shock. She apologized again and hoped things would get better, but they didn't. In fact, she actually received veiled threats and became very afraid while at school.

She realized back in October that this was what she wanted to do and began searching for a school. We were pleased with the first one we saw, but my husband kept dragging his feet and wasn't on board with the whole thing. I prayed and prayed about this and tried very hard not to try to influence him in any way other than by prayer (and admitting what I spend for skin care treatments). Still, he wouldn't agree to it.

Then my own skin care therapist suggested we go and look at the school she attended. My daughter was not enthusiastic, but she agreed and we went on the first day off she had. I liked this school much more than the previous one, but she was very noncommittal. As we walked out, I said, "You weren't impressed." She said, "No, I actually like it much better than the other one." She was abiding by her dad's constant chant - Never let them see you like it.

To our great surprise, two days later, my husband agreed to her attending this school - even though it cost more and was farther away - increased gas costs and $80 a month in toll charges and all. We were shocked. She had to pay for part of her tuition, but ultimately, we'd seen God turn "Pharoah's heart" in allowing her to attend this school at all. So we knew she was in the right place.

Still, no one wants to be terrified every day. Two days after the threat, I got a text message from her in the middle of the day telling me she was so scared she was shaking. I immediately sent text messages, emails, even a MySpace message to prayer partners and sent scripture reminding her that God is her Strong Tower. An hour later, I sent another message to her and asked if she was okay. The woman who'd threatened her had gone to lunch and came back and was sick at her stomach and had to go home. How's that for a quick answer? I think God definitely has a sense of humor, don't you? Over the next few weeks, the fear eased as she relied more and more on God. It was awesome to watch God at work in her life.

Once she was down to only needing 48 hours to complete the course, she was allowed to stay late and go in on Saturday, so she did - 12-hour days last Thursday and Friday and yesterday and five hours on Saturday so she could finish today. What tenacity and now she's on to bigger and better things. I can't wait to see what God leads her to do. It's going to be a great ride!

If you'd like to see a trailer for the film she worked on this summer go to historymakerfilms.com and click on "Fully Alive".