If you are just now joining, check out part 1 here.
So here I am in 8th grade just soaking up all that God can give me. I was extremely blessed to grow in a church where grace was given freely, even to the youth. Yet I was challenged to grow in my knowledge and faith. It was awesome. I was growing so much enjoying such an amazing relationship with God, but I still had no idea how that translated to dating. At that time no one questioned whether you should or should not date, it was a given. So lots of confusion through high school in the dating area. My sophomore year I started dating a guy who professed to be Catholic, but only attended or talked about his beliefs if it was Christmas Eve mass. I don't know why it was so unclear if I should date him or not, hind sight is 20/20. I even asked other, wiser people, and no straight answers. I was 15 when we started dating, crazy. That led to a 7 year relationship, over half of which was long distance, thank you Jesus! My heart was broken over and over, but what I didn't realize is that I couldn't expect him to act with the same convictions I had because he hadn't been changed by the love of Jesus like I had. so it was just rules to him.
My junior year a new high school was built in the town and only about 70 of us went to the new school. I had an awesome group of friends that were excited about living for Jesus. We were having student-led bible studies at each other's houses and pretty soon it grew from about 15 of us to 70+. It was awesome. Summer came and the guy I had been dating and I broke up. Another guy and I started to date, but pretty soon I realized I was still interested in the first guy and broke it off. Well, because of that ALL but 2 of my friends that were girls and 1 guy friend turned on me. My senior year was torture. The guy I was dating was gone to college. To this day it is the most persecution for my faith I have ever experienced. Apparently they all decided to get into drinking and other things and our 'Bible study" was reduced to a social gathering where afterward they all would make fun of me for being a Christian. Nice and mature, huh? This went on almost the entire year and I ditched the student-led "bible studies"and started going to Younglife. I will never forget how real the scriptures were to me that dealt with persecution and 'because they hate me they will hate you". Every single day of school was like walking into a war zone and being ambushed verbally by those who were my friend less than a year ago.
College was interesting I went to a smaller school for awhile and didn't enjoy it. My best friend and I transferred to UGA, go dawgs! At this point in my life I was growing further away from God. I hadn't found a place to plug in with authentic believers and pretty much gave up on trying to plug in. I was busy with school and working waiting tables, so I didn't have much time for anything else. The summer after my junior year I went to stay half the summer with the family of the guy I had been dating for so long. I knew this would tell me a lot and boy did it ever. It was miserable. I packed up my car a few times, but couldn't leave because I was taking a summer class at the local college where they lived. BAD decision! As soon as it was over I headed home and had a long 10 hour drive to process it. I knew that was not what I wanted in a marriage and I knew I was dying spiritually on the inside. So I returned to my senior year and decided to check out the student ministries at UGA. I knew I was home when I attended the Wesley Foundation and there were real authentic people who I would be friends with even if they weren't Christians. I got involved in a small group, a local food and prayer outreach and before I knew it I was looking at going on a mission trip to Guatemala.
It was here that God loved on me big time, speaking to me about my true identity and where He wants to take me. I clearly heard God say to me that if I wanted all of God, He had to have all of me. He would not force me to surrender every area of my life, but he couldn't work in an area I had not surrendered. I knew what that meant and I gave up the relationship. Spring break I went to Guatemala on a mission trip, that in itself is a whole story, but there a couple of significant things happened. First, God directly spoke to me through the wife of the couple leading the ministry there. She shared here testimony and it was exactly where I was in my life. God had promised her that if she surrendered He had something far better for her. That night God said that He would bless me if I chose that life, but if I was willing, He had something far better. So I closed a door that night. Secondly, I met some amazing friends on that trip, actually by the time we were actually on the trip we were all great friends. Except for one guy that was a couple of years older that tagged along to see his buddy that was working down there. He kept to himself and usually only talked to the leaders of the trip. I didn't get to know him till later in the trip when we ended up sitting next to each other on one of the bus rides. He and my other friend Dana are still to this day some of my best friends.
More on what happened next later....
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