My Journey of Faith Testing {Guest Post}

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The journey I have taken has had many difficult trials and some crazy unexpected turns, but it’s one that I wouldn’t ever change.  God has put on my heart many things that I believe he wants me to share with women, but this one today is the most crucial to your faith and I believe needs to be fully understood.  Here is a portion of the journey I have been on over the last 10+ years of my life and the knowledge I have received that I hope you will find encouraging and uplifting.

The desire I had of being a Wife and mother was farther down the road in my life than I ever expected, but God ultimately knew what he was doing.  Why would God give me something that I desire before I really knew HIM?   

The first day of the start to my college years to my mid 20’s I was far from walking the right path.  After wasting away those years of my life with no focus on anyone or anything but myself, I finally reached an end point in early 2002 of truly desiring God once again and really wanting to move on from the things that I had fallen into for so long.  With help from a friend I had decided to start this new life by going back to college and moving away from my hometown to get away from the temptations. But as I quickly found out, that never works.  My options were limited with trying to pursue my degree of choice in Interior Design that was affordable, my closest school option was California, or so I thought. Soon we found out that a University about 5 hours North of my hometown offered a Degree in Interior Design, that’s all it took for me, I applied and was accepted to start school in the Fall of 2002 and was set to move in about 2 months.  I went there to get away from it all, get myself into a “better place” away from the temptations, all well furthering my education so that I can have a good career.  Well let me fill you in on a little knowledge about this University, it was known as being a party school and had multiple streets of Greek Housing, it definitely wasn’t the best place for me to “get away” from the temptations or problems I was currently having.  God had a plan though that I didn’t foresee and it ended up being the PERFECT place for me to find God again.

The first semester at school I was caught up in the same old stuff and towards the end of my first semester kicking myself and asking WHY.  “I came up here for a change and I am just doing the same old thing.” That was when I was ready to accept Gods intervention.  I was introduced to a campus ministry group called Chi Alpha Christian fellowship and a group of AMAZING friends who helped me start to turn my life around.  They helped me to see God for who he really is and challenged me along the way because of that in the spring of 2003 I re-dedicated my life to Christ and began a new chapter.  I would love to say this was my light bulb moment, but it wasn’t, I had been wrapped up in so many things for so long that I just didn’t no how to live life without them.  Did I make some great changes YES, I got outside myself, I began studying the word and really truly seeking Christ.  I went on my first ever mission trip to the Tenderloin District in San Francisco, which was the biggest life changing experience I have ever had.  These were all great changes, however I was still sinning and knowing that what I was doing was a sin, but just didn’t know how to break the cycle.

After graduating college and moving back home, my problems continued, I slipped back in my disciplines that I relied on so heavily in college and was just going through the motions.  I came to the realization one day about a year down the road that something is just wrong with me and I need to figure out why I am the way that I am. A few days after that realization I met someone who is now a dear friend who talked to me about a program he was facilitating called Christ Centered Change, he said it might be exactly what I was looking for.  The first night in the program I had a great sense of peace and knew this is exactly where God wanted me and that great things were in store.  Through many tears and 2 years of intense digging of those deep roots and being real about me and my life God broke me of one deep rooted issue that caused me the most pain and was the source of all my struggles over the last 14 years.  Once I finally FULLY surrendered to God and chose to acknowledge my part in the things I had been doing God began blessing me with the desires of my heart.  As I neared the end of my 2 years in that program, I met my husband, the perfect Godly man who I was meant to be with, 4 months later we were engaged and 7 months later we were married.  We have now been happily married for 3 years and I truly feel so blessed by everything God has given me and the journey he is taking me on and has taken me on, that at times seems endless and at many times was unsatisfying.

So I know your saying “Great Testimony Tricia, but how does this relate to me I have never been where you are at?”  Well here it is: I am asked often, “Would I change any of the experiences I went through?”  ABSOLUTELY NOT!  I know without a doubt that God knew every step I was going to take and he also knew and still knows the final outcome of my life.  Every experience good or bad and every person along my path, I have learned from and ultimately I am who I am because of those experiences and people.

Here are a few important lessons I learned that are crucial in your walk with Christ and trusting him on YOUR JOURNEY:

First and most importantly: The paths that we take are not mistakes or regrets, they are part of the journey.  Every path that we take whether the Lord is guiding that path or we are taking control, His plan will ultimately be revealed.

Secondly:  We do not know what the future holds, only God does and so we must give up our need to control when, where and how things are supposed to happen.  God knows the right timing and most importantly he knows when we are ready for those bumps, bruises and lessons along Our Journey.

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