Yesterday, our class had had an open book exam. You could use your text book but not mobile devices. In open book exams, it is usually difficult to sift through the many pages to find the answer. In some open book exams, while you may have the text book for reference, the questions are hardly derived from it. Thankfully for this exam this was not the case.

When the teacher told us that we were allowed to use only the text book but not the laptops or smartphones, I became a bit worried (you can search pdfs with a pdf reader). For one, the subject was one I chose freely out of my usual software theory. So many of the terms in this class I had little or no understanding of. Anyhow, thanks to God, I was encouraged by another sister whose school load is probably 10 times mine and because of that load of work she endured daily, I was motivated to carefully read the text book. Although much of it I didn’t understand, I knew persistence to the end was necessary.

On the day of the exam and another day before, I remember a classmate enticing me to ignore the teacher and simply use the smartphone. I gave no favour to the idea and just kept silent, but on the day of the exam when he mentioned it again, I said to him, “I cannot, he [the teacher] said not to; if I do this I will disobey him.” Of course in my mind my biggest concern was honouring God. On another occasion I had mentioned to this classmate a little about my faith. Writing this report now I sort of wish I had said, “It would be dishonourable to my God to do such a thing.” However, perhaps what I actually said was how the Spirit wanted me to respond.

During the exam, folks were passing answers. I remember asking God for help because I wanted to honour Him and stay honest. (It’s no fun hearing: “answers on page x”, when you are struggling to find them on your own) Even the teacher failed to correctly invigilate the class. Students were sharing answers right in front of his eyes and he didn’t seem to blink. Anyhow, I didn’t know much that was on the paper, but God opened my eyes and lifted keywords in the text book pages to me. At first I was not finding the answers, but by His grace I remained steadfast to His precepts and my ears heard but didn’t listen, my eyes saw but yet I didn’t see. With His help, I managed to find all answers from the book questioned in the paper. Questions based on my own thinking, He again helped me to answer. I just have to praise God. I am certain it was not me, but by the grace of God.

Thank You God!

1 Sam 2:30 Therefore the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I said indeed that your house and the house of your father would walk before Me forever.’ But now the Lord says: ‘Far be it from Me; for those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed.