"Cast All Your Cares on Him, For He Cares for You"

 Whew. Now we've hit the crash course years (though I'm sure other lessons from earlier years will pop up). 

Herald in Winter semester of 2012.

January of 2012 marked the beginning of my last semester of college. It was my student teaching semester. I had been warned that student teaching was often the most difficult for teaching majors. I went it to it with some trepidation, but without believing it was as hard as they said.

But it was--or at least, more difficult than anticipated.

Around March, I had fully taken over the classroom. I was lesson planning, prepping, grading papers, and getting evaluated. It was becoming overwhelming. I was starting to understand the warnings I had received. I kept telling myself I could do it. Then, the unthinkable happened. The boy I had been in love with for years (though I admit it was unrequited) started dating someone else. I was heartbroken— to the point that I was throwing up with anxiety and depression (an unfortunate response that happened every two weeks and lasted for several months).

To top it all off, I came down with a cold that left me feeling lethargic and unmotivated.

I remember sitting in my pajamas in my apartment on a Sunday evening, bawling and literally feeling like I couldn’t go on — that I wouldn’t survive another day. I called a friend to ask for a prayer and a blessing. It was good, and helped a little, but the intense anxiety and sorrow I was feeling still lingered heavily.

I crawled into my bed that night, and as I was crying and saying my nightly prayers, I remembered the lyrics to one of my favorite Christian songs (Jeremy Camp's "Healing Hand of God"): 

“Cast all your cares on Him for He cares for you.

He's near to the broken and confused

By His stripes our spirit is renewed

So enter in the joy prepared for you."

I remembered the verse of scripture it was based on, 1 Peter 5:7: "Casting all your cares on him; for he careth for you."

"If those words are true," I desperately pleaded, "Then take these burdens from me."

 I imagined “casting” my cares on him — giving Him all of my worries, fears, heartbreak, pain, etc, and imagined Him taking them. Immediately, I felt everything lift from my shoulders. I felt an astounding peace.

My problems didn’t magically go away — I still had to go in and student teach the next day, I still had a cold, and the boy I had fallen for wasn’t suddenly going to date me — but I felt I felt lighter. I knew I could go on, and that the Savior was with me.