A New Chapter

Ok Friends, it's here. The first day of a new chapter.

In my last post I stated that I was no longer going to withhold the message that God has put on my heart - the reason He's created me, the purpose He's given me, the calling He's put upon me. Though I have been seriously lagging this week, I am sticking to that!

God even worked in some amazing ways this past weekend to reaffirm my calling, to open my eyes to some things I'd forgotten, and to give me fresh vision.

On Friday, my roommate and I watched the movie "To Save a Life." It is a faith-based movie about a teenage boy whose childhood friend commits suicide. It leads him to become saved and change his life and how he treats people.

It reminded me that my calling and my heart is not solely about talking about purity and relationships. That certainly is one aspect of my testimony and an area that affects teens that I DO want to talk about, but it's not the only one. God reminded me through that movie that my true heart is for ministering to teens who are going through dark times and places in their lives. That darkness could be related to family problems, depression, eating disorders, relationship issues, etc. - all of which I have dealt with in my own life. There are certainly many hard and dark things I have not had to deal with or go through, praise Jesus - but there are quite a handful that I have! My true heart is for sharing with them the one key thing that got me through all those years of darkness and difficult times - My relationship with God. I long to tell them that there is hope in Jesus, and a relationship with Him can bring them out of the darkness.

The second thing that God did this weekend was allowing me to meet a teenage girl at church who is going through her parents' divorce. I didn't get a lot of talk time with her, as she was very quiet, but I at least had the opportunity to give her my email address and phone number and express that I was available if she wanted to talk or hang out. I think it might have scared her a little, but I don't care! I was doing what God put me on this earth to do, and I was grateful for the opportunity, even if nothing ever comes of it. I was being obedient, so it won't be wasted.

Divorce is a special issue to me, because that's when the dark times in my life began. I had a distinct moment when my parents separated when I decided that I wanted to help "other kids like me." And 16 years later, that's what I'm setting out to do with the vision God's given me.

In the past few months, I've shared on my blog the part of my testimony and my life that related to purity and relationships. In the coming days, I'm going to share the rest of my testimony that more aptly relates to the entirety of what God's calling me to do.

Stay tuned!