Getting "NO" as an answer

Last July I applied for a short course scholarship that will be held in Thailand. The school program is  EU-ASEAN High-Performance Computing (HPC) School, which will select 60 computing professionals in the ASEAN countries, including Philippines. Through the HPC School, computing professionals will be given the chance to navigate and use supercomputers personally and perform programming. I applied because I want to be able to navigate that supercomputer, which I just see in books, videos, pictures. Aside from that once in a lifetime experience of using a supercomputer, I applied for the scholarship for the travel opportunity in Thailand. Though the airfare is not free but the hotel accommodation and meals are free.

The application requirements are resume and motivation letter. I made my resume highlighting my educational and work background and researches. In my motivation letter I expressed the reasons for applying, the things that I will do after the HPC School and my future contributions in research for the ASEAN countries.

For the whole month of August, I prayed that I will be given the chance to be selected for this program. I write it down in my prayer request. I also made some plans in mind of what will I do in Thailand when I will be there. In their site, the results will be out early in September.

Just yesterday, after the training sessions I had in one of our campuses, I received an email about the result. I was excited but nervous and I got the answer for my prayer.

I feel sad about the result but I did not complain or became upset. At least I was given the chance to apply. Maybe next time, I can apply again or maybe better opportunities are there prepared for me.

I believe that God really answers prayers, a YES, a NO and WAIT. Today, I got NO for my prayer. But this should not be the reason to have a complaining spirit, I should learn to appreciate both the good and bad in life. When there is one reason to be sad, there are one hundred reasons to be happy and to be thankful. This opportunity is not for me for now. But I believe that better days are coming ahead. I just need to trust the Lord's plan and timing and not mine. Who knows God will give me a more promising scholarship with all travel expenses paid with an allowance. I will surely go back to this post when that time comes.

So the best lesson for this experience - learn to accept things. When you are praying for something, the Lord answers prayers but not always on the way that you desire.

Thanks to this platform, in a way it became an outlet of my emotions through time, both the good and the bad, the happy and the sad, the winnings and the losings.

9.3.2022

~MizLhaine