What about me… I am a Daughter. I am a daughter of the Creator of the Universe and I fell in love with His son recently. This past summer, at the age of 25, I fell in love with the Son of the Most High, Jesus.
I suppose my journey started earlier though. I grew up in a small town in Southeastern Minnesota, Winona, to be exact. I was born to a young family my mom, Shelley, my dad, Dan, and my older brother, Danny. My little sister, Micaela, came along 5 years later. I was daddy’s little girl for a while growing up, always trying to please him and doing my best to be a good little girl. We went to church on sundays and I was a polite child, I didn’t speak out of turn. I went to a Catholic grade school and high school where I learned about God and Jesus and how much He loved me. I was 12 when I decided to receive that love. My little sister had been really annoying me and I just couldn’t do it myself anymore… I prayed the prayer.. “Jesus, I need you to come into my heart. Help me love my little sister the way you do. She is really getting on my nerves and I can’t handle it anymore…” Something like that 🙂 And sure enough He did!
Now, I was 12 and didn’t really know what had happened to me. Something in my heart had fluttered for a month or so and then slowly disappeared. I started living outside the love of God. Nothing torn me away, it wasn’t a conscious decision.. Sin just started invading my life and soon enough I was living for myself and whatever pleased me. I acknowledged God every once in a while to thank Him for something good in my life. But in my needs, in my darkest hours, I hid from Him. I didn’t want Him to know I was struggling. I wanted to be independent and show people I could make it on my own. I lived this way through high school and college but looking back I can see that in my struggles, in my hiding place, He was always there. He was the one who put people in my life who just turned me around and some of those people don’t even know they were used by God. I sure didn’t realize it at the time.
God has been orchestrating my life since I was born. I have seen His hand on every part of my life, my hills and my valleys. Always with an encouraging whisper never yelling or condemning. I have tried to be all kinds of different people… A daddy’s girl, a good girl, a student, an athlete, an artist, a photographer, the life of the party, the fly on the wall, a business woman, a swimmer, a coach – all these things I’ve tried to be. I’ve wanted them to define me, because I was lost. 25 years old, college graduate, didn’t really know what I wanted in life. I was wandering around aimlessly, searching for meaning in my life that wasn’t coming from the things I was trying to be.
God wanted me here, in this place, in these jobs, in this time, for reasons I will never understand. But what I do understand is He met me here. He revealed Himself to me in ways so specific to my need of Him I couldn’t turn away this time. A Father’s love. So simple, I could stop trying to define my life with things I’ve done and just be His Daughter! In this realization I was set free from any baggage I had been carrying, any relationship wounds, or hurtful lies I’d been telling myself were true for far too long. Anything I have done, or will do, has been forgiven. That because of His Son, Jesus I am pure, sinless, righteous in His eyes. Jesus covered Himself with my sin the day He died on the cross. He paid the price for me! He is my salvation, my hope, my love. How can I not fall in love with someone who died for me? And to make the love story complete.. HE ROSE FROM THE DEAD! He is victorious against death. He is my hero, whom I will love forever and ever.
When you fall in love, you are consumed by thoughts and feelings for that person. That is what happened to me this summer (2013) I desired to be in the presence of Jesus all the time. I became involved in a church with believers who loved Jesus as much as I did and pursued Him in ways I’ve never known. I have this deep rooted desire to see the world, to experience people from other nations, and now to go out and love them with the love I receive from Jesus everyday. The World Race is that opportunity for me. The grand adventure that I’ve been desiring for a long time. God has opened the doors and is saying ‘GO’. Go make disciples of all nations. Go. My arms are raised and I am humbled that He chose me! I am excited and terrified of what He has in store for me and for the people I will meet along the way. But I am trusting Him for provision and strength, mercy and love, and I am standing on the truth that I am His Daughter and ‘I know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to his purpose’. – Romans 8:28
