The changes started off more gradual. For starters, I added a double major in English, and a minor in Religion to my program. I also began to learn about what it meant to truly love Jesus, and to get freedom from the crap that I carried around for years. God's hand has been on me my whole life, I know, but never so obviously as it was when he sent me to an incredible church, in downtown Brantford, called Freedom House. It was at this church, where the important changes began. Not in a place where I was willing to give up on God, yet not sure about life and how to include Him in mine, I began to work through this while in my new "home away from home." On Tuesday nights, Freedom House holds a midweek service that simply consists of worship and prayer. This is where God began to grab a hold of my life, and I began to grab back at Him. Slowly but surely, I began to work through little amounts of my baggage, and slowly began to find freedom from it. And there was a lot of baggage to work through, believe me.
Now, with my first year of University under my belt, this is where one of the bigger changes occurred. I got a job working for Freedom House, and was getting ready to head back to Brantford, after a month of being home, working. I was now one of those girls who could throw her hands up in the air, and show off that bare left ring finger, and sing along with Beyonce's, "Single Ladies." However, this new singleness was not a result of someone "not putting a ring on it," but rather, I finally listened and obeyed God, and so did my boyfriend at the time. We both realized that while we had thought we would get married, and were often encouraged that marriage was in our future and should be our goal, we finally acknowledge that God had different and better plans for each of us. Now, I don't know if you've ever ended a long term relationship, but it's not the easiest thing to do. I had been tied to this person for 3 and a half years, and needless to say, the transition was not the easiest one in the world. However, it was in this transition that I began to find out who I am, who God is, and what I want out of life. As I began to separate myself from that relationship, I began to find out who I was on my own. Slowly but surely, I made the transition, and learned how much I need God in my life, and how I couldn't hack it on my own.
Since that fantastic summer, where I really started to break down the lies I had believed about myself, God, and life, I began to be transformed into a new creation in Christ. It hasn't been a perfect journey, there have been ups and downs, doubts, fears, and meltdowns; but through it all, God has remained the perfect and faithful God that his word promises He is. Where I'm sitting, with the Young Adults group that I now lead, four years later, as I prepare to travel to Africa in a month, and potentially teach overseas upon graduation, I look back on how far I've come, and there isn't one moment in my journey that I would trade. Everything that has happened to and through me to this point has contributed to making me into the woman of God that I am today, and am still becoming. I'm in no way perfect, and I still have a long way to go, but I know that God is proud of me, loves me, and has wonderful plans for my future, and I am beginning to be able to trust Him with those plans.
To finish off, I'd like to leave you with a few verses that the girls' group I attend, Princess Club, calls their creed. 1 Thessalonians 5:12-24 says:
"Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak,be patient with everyone. Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else.
Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
Do not quench the Spirit. Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil.
May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it."
