A story of God's goodness: June 2015

While a sophomore in college my R.A. lead a Monday night bible study. On one particular night she asked us to write a letter to ourselves that we were to read a few months later. The purpose was to write something we were going through and had learned. As I wrote I never imagined reading it 5 years later. Surprisingly it meant so much to me then as it does now.

I wrote about the gem in finding good friendships as well as viewing everyday a gift from God. At the end of the letter I had written, “Enjoy life Katie, but enjoy it doing the will of God and being a good example.” At the age of 21 God had brought me to this realization that I would remember, struggle to remember, and see this truth for the rest of my life. That God’s will is better than my own. It is so cool to see how my life was to how it is in the present. I have grown so much in the past 5 years.

Somehow in the midst of trials these past few years I have struggled to enjoy life. Now if you are going to tell me that I deserve to be upset because of everything I have been through, thanks but don’t say that. You see ALL of us have gone through different struggles, trials, and temptations. I believe that no life is perfect. To those that have the so called “easy trials” I congratulate you. But to those who have gone through “hell” I tell you that God always gives us what we can handle (I Corinthians 10:13)! I struggled and still do at times, to enjoy the life set before me.

The struggle is real. I would sometime here Stephen say this exact thing. Now for him he usually said this in meaning to his sexual desires that men struggle with for women. But there were many times when he would say it in a different context. That it was a struggle to enjoy life when it was hard. For me and maybe you, it is a struggle to enjoy life when things aren’t going our way. There was a time I thought that being sick was best for my life because it brought me closer to God. I was wrong to want to be sick. You see God hates to see his children suffer. He does want a close relationship with me, yet, He doesn’t like to see me like this. And honestly if I was to suffer for Christ and be bed ridden for the rest of my life then great. I believe, though, that God does things for his glory. I believe he is going to heal me. That might not mean I will go back to 100% but it does mean this time of life is not going to continue forever. New joys will and do come my way every day.

I continually choose to remember how blessed I am daily.

I still enjoy life but because of the changes I’ve gone through I can’t go back to who I was. I used to enjoy being in a group with all my friends laughing about ridiculous things. Now I find myself enjoying a deep conversation with a close friend. I’m always going to be changing. And well honestly we all are changing. What we were a year ago we have changed at least a little. We are human, we learn something new every day and we make changes to our lives with the things that we learn. Sometimes we use our knowledge for good and sometime it becomes a clutch in our lives. Still, we are constantly learning.

I’m thankful for change and I’m thankful to learn.

If I could sum up my life right now in one word I would have to say humbled. Things don’t always turn out as we always wished, but I do enjoy seeing the beauty of life no matter what happens.

So this is my life.

This is why I am blessed and God is good:

I am a child of God.

I went to college and made many good friendships.