Choices

Over the course of my life, I have encountered situations where I have been forced to make a choice. What to eat for breakfast, for instance, or what to wear to school. Other choices have been more important, such as what college to go to, or what church to join...whether or not to go to church was even a choice I had to make. All in all, choices come every day, important ones, and not so important ones, and we are all forced to make them.

Tonight, as I face the decision of what this year will mean for me, all I can do is look back on the past and assess what the last years have meant for me.

I'll start with my senior year in high school: that year was a big year for decisions. That year, I decided to enter into a relationship with an awesome guy who was in love with Jesus Christ and could not have a conversation without mentioning Him. I also decided that year what college I was going to attend. I thought I had it all figured out....

Freshman year in college meant BIG CHANGE. I was forced to make the choice of what I was going to make of my life in the United States. Was I going to wallow in bitterness at my parents making me "give the States a chance"? Or was I going to make my new life in this new place all that it could be for me? That year, I discovered that some "stupid gringos" (no offense intended, another post will explain this mindset) were not so stupid after all, and decided that some were even nice and worth investing in friendship with. I also made the painful choice to break up with that awesome guy I started dating my senior year in high school, a relationship I had been comfortable with for a year and a half. Freshman year, if i had to give it a theme, was my year of OBEDIENCE. Though I had to make several choices that hurt, I could not have made it without the knowledge that I was being obedient to God's guidance and entrusting Him with knowing what is best for me.

Sophomore year, I think, was my year of trials. My heart needed much healing from having broken off my relationship, and I had blindly dived into a very unhealthy living situation. I was slammed with the reality that everyone is not easy to live with, and that it is important to know what exactly you are getting yourself into when moving in with people. This is not to say that I regret having been in that situation, because I have come out of it a better person, and I hope that the others who were in it also came out of it better people. Persevering through this situation definitely built character in me, and after that situation I reaped the benefits of being placed in a wonderful living situation with the Godliest girls I have ever met in my life.

Junior year, so far, has been a year for me of choosing to believe God. I believe and know that His plans are best for me, and His timing is perfect, but so many times I want to take the control back into my own hands, and when I do, I get disappointed. As the first semester of my senior year/second semester of my junior year unfolds, I will daily have to choose to believe God for His grace.

Care to join me?