23 and Me

God is so good to me!

He has protected me from much, grown me more, and showed me how much of a treasure I am to Him and He is to me. It's crazy sometimes, as I look over this last year, all the things that have changed and how I have changed. The lessons learned, the character grown...I didn't know how much I lacked until I grew. 

Nothing like real life and hard things to show you!

I know I'm not that old, but I'm old enough now to be able to say I became a teenager ten years ago. I started college 7 years ago. I graduated with my associates 5 years ago. I battled God 4 years ago, I went back to school 3 years ago. I graduated over a year ago. 

In the midst of all that, I worked as a contributing journalist, then piano teacher, continued teaching music when I did staff writing for the county paper, finished school, floundered a bit , experienced a short relationship, disappointment, and then two years later became a teacher in South Georgia. There were a lot of lonely years. Looking back, I know God was teaching me to rely more heavily on Him and less on the nature of those around me. My personality has always tended towards the latter if I had my way. 🙃

I thought my BA was it as far as education was concerned. Then I was strong armed and guided by the Lord to take my program admission and then my content area gace assessments to get my Master's degree in Education. I just found out I passed both and I start this summer. :) To think I never wanted to be where I am today makes me glad God doesn't listen to me. 👌🏼

I know those paragraphs look like I didn’t take a breath. :) Sometimes though, if I stop to breathe, I think twice about sharing everything and you don’t get the whole story. This is still not all of it, just a general overview. Like a syllabus 😁

I'm probably one of the most stubborn people God has ever created, but He has softened me so much with His providence in my life. He never fails. He always answers my prayers, and I never have to wonder what He's shown me. He gives an overwhelming and restful peace!

Just like I'm now single at 23. But yet, I've not let a year of this young adulthood so far go by without consistent prayer for whoever my future spouse is and who I hope to be for them. I don’t want wasted or needlessly spent time. 

I know that because there is peace in the waiting. Not just for relationships. For life. For my dreams. For my purposes. For every plan relinquished and rebuilt differently. For every answer to prayer. 

I'm sharing these inner parts of me because of one thing. There's a million other Christian girls like me. They really want to do God's will but their will has to be bent and twisted like fine steel. And we all know how steel is shaped. By fire. and God isn't done twisting me yet. 

To the 18 year old, I only have two pieces of advice. 1# Don't ask the Lord for patience. :D 

He will most definitely help you find it if that's your weak spot! If your desire is to get in a specific university, pray according to God's will and for peace in the result. The same goes for that job oportunity you've been given or that guy you have or haven't met. 

I won't discuss relationships, because I'm not qualified yet. But I do have a specialists degree in stupidity and a doctorate in "100 ways God develops character", because I'm pretty sure He's tried it all on me. That's why, girlfrand 

, I wanted to have this conversation. 😂

But at the same time I write and think over that last bit, I know how patient God has been with me. He knows I want to be like Him, but humanity draws me like everyone else. So how does He develop the kind of love for others and the ensuing patience He has in our hearts? By trying us, refining us, making us ugly cry in prayer, beg on our knees, experience disappointment, wait a while, experience rejection by several people, and never receive what we thought we needed. This is good SEVERE pain. I'm by no means the spiritually tallest of Christian women, but I am so proud of who I am in Christ. If there's something about my journey you wish to know more about, please feel free to call or meet me for coffee (like I'm doing with a dear friend tomorrow!). There's nothing I love more than to talk about where God has taken us on this whirlwind of a thing called life. Testimonies are beautiful and unique.

“I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

-Philippians 3:14-

Second piece of advice. Give Him every accomplishment and every goal and He will multiply both.

Because of Christ, I stand erect. Because of Christ, I find peace. Because of Christ, I reach goals He fine tunes. Because of Christ, I stand protected. Because of Christ, I can be physically exhausted (I often am) and still press onward. Because He asks two things of us. Allegiance and doing the next thing He sets before us on the path of life. I can't put it quite like one of the women that has shaped my feminine thinking. 

"What is the next thing for you to do? Small duties, perhaps? Jobs that nobody will notice as long as you do them? A dirty job that you would get out of if you could have your own preferences? Are you asked to take some great responsibility, which you really don’t feel qualified to do? You don’t have to do the whole thing right this minute, do you? I can tell you one thing that you do have to do right this minute. It’s the one thing that is required of all of us every minute of every day. Trust in the living God."

-Elisabeth Elliot-

John 14:27