Disclaimer: I am a terrible speller sorry and I woke up at 3 in the morning and God laid this on my heart so here it is my first blog
Have you ever sat and thought to your self how different your life would be if………
You lived in Africa
You listened and followed every direction you were ever given by your parents
You never dated that guy or that girl
You went to a different college or high school
You never saw that episode of your favorite TV show
You got that job you so badly wanted
You grew up taking dance and not playing sports
I know that some of these seem pretty insignificant but God has really been teaching me lately that life would be very different. For instance, now that school is back in full swing I have a lot of choices to make. Like yesterday I could have chosen to watch TV after I got done with class, but instead I chose to take the time and read through the up coming material and study (can't believe I am admitting this in my first blog but I really can be dork sometimes). My point behind telling you all this is that maybe my study time will help me for my next exam or perhaps maybe it won't. I am leaning more towards the fact that it will help me! The second thing is that I won't really know until after my exam the effect of my studying. Now this is really just one tiny example that I can think of because daily we all make choices and ultimately they lead us to who we become and where life takes us. I mean I think we can all tell each other stories about how we would never be where we are at if "blank" happened or we chose to do "blank". As I write this blog the story about how my parents met popped into my mind. Hopefully they won't mind me sharing this with you all. You see my dad asked this girl out. For my story telling purposes we will shall call her, Mary mainly because I don't know if he ever told me her real name. Well anyways, he calls Mary up because he had previously asked her to go out on a date with him. Mary must have forgotten about their date or maybe decided she did not want to go out with him because she was not in her dorm room when he called to come pick her up. My mother was Mary's room mate at the time and she ends up answering the phone and talking to my dad. My dad then decides, "You know what I had planned to take a girl out tonight so why not ask her out." You think after being ditched he would feel quit rejected. I guess my mother felt pretty charitable at the time and said yes, and they have been together ever since 
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I knew I always loved this story for a reason. I guess it makes since without it I would not be here and it is the truest example about how life could be different if one thing had not happened the way it did. I think God has me pondering the daily things that seem like they don't matter or won't make a difference because He wants to show me that every choice takes you down a path. Some paths good and some paths bad. For those of you reading this blog who have no idea about my recent choice to go on the World Race I look forward to talking to you about it and explaining why I feel God calling me to give the next year of my life to missions. I remember the day I heard about the World Race. It was over this past summer when I was hiking with a friend of mine. She and I were talking about where we would like to see the Lord take us in the future and what we had been feeling called too. Some how she started telling me about the World Race. I had never heard of it before or so I thought. That same day I went home and was reading back through my journal because like I told you God has been teaching me how important it is to pray about the roads I take daily. I think it's important to look back through your journal or to keep a journal for that matter so that you can see the small turns that take you to the bigger ones. As I was looking through my journal I came across and old entry from a church service in Nashville called Kairos. At this particular Kairos we had all gotten these handouts about missions. I sometimes keep my handouts in the page of the journal that it goes along with and I had kept this one. When I was looking over it I saw it again, "The world Race." Now some people might think it just a coincidence, but I don't really believe in those. After that day I could not stop pondering it and now a couple months later here I am starting this journey.
I can not wait to see what this next year looks like! While yes I am super pumped to have this opportunity I am more excited about God. He is the prize and that will never change! This might be cheesy but I want each of my decisions to be made because I know that at the end of the road He is the destination.
