Milestones

My Testimony

            My parents were young and on fire for God when they met. They were both on a mission to Mexico when God told both of them that they were going to marry each other. 16 months after they met they had me. I grew up wanting to be just like them. I watched as we went from my dad working 18- 20 hours a day shifts and going to school to working normal work hours. All the time, my faith in God grew as I watched him continuously provide for my family and me.

           

            When I was 5 years old my parents asked me, in their bedroom facing 11^th avenue in Franklin, if I wanted Jesus to be in my heart… I kinda thought that this was a funny question… I thought Jesus was already in my heart? But I went along with it because it would make it all feel “official...” I guess. The next year, my family of 5 (with one on the way), went to a conference at “some big church” far away from home. They were baptizing people that week and my dad asked me if I wanted to be baptized too. I said “yes” and that day I proclaimed Jesus to be my savior as the entire congregation witnessed me rise up from the water a new daughter of the King. Around this time was when God wanted my parents back on the mission field… he sent my whole family back to Santa Cruz, California to be elders of a church that was falling apart. I remember my parents being so strong in their faith through all of it- all we had to do was sit back and watch everything around us just work out. We started home groups, worked around the camp we were living on, and even I told some of my friends at my tutorial about Jesus.

            Growing up, Jesus had always -just been- in my life. He was my imaginary friend… the only difference was that he wasn’t imaginary. I talked to him like I would have talked to my sisters or to my friends from church. He was always there… I will never forget the day I was sitting in the back of our Volvo and He told me that my mom was going to have 8 children (we had 4 at the time). I now have 8 brothers and sisters from my mom.

            As I started to get older, things around me started to change: going to public school for the first time in 7^th grade, adopting Katrina from Liberia, boys asking me out… getting my first cell phone, going out with my first boyfriend, getting in big trouble for $80 worth of texts, and finally wanting nothing to do with my parent... I felt like my world was falling apart. Jesus was still there, but only on Wednesday nights or Sunday mornings...

            I dated this boy for 2 years. Within that time, my respect for my parents began to dwindle and soon became fickle. They didn’t want me to date him, but I was “in love” with him. They would restrict my phone privileges, but I “needed” to talk to him, so I would ignore their rules. They would ground me, but I “needed” to be around him, so I would cry and sit up in my room thinking of ways to be with him. Finally, after 2 years I hit rock bottom. I had built up so much resentment toward my parents that they weren’t even my friends anymore. I was living with such a huge record of wrongs I had committed that I finally reached a point where nothing mattered anymore… if I disobeyed my parents, who cared? …I had so much riding against me anyways, “just add another thing onto the list, it wouldn’t make a difference.”

            I needed a friend and I couldn’t find one in my own home, I couldn’t call my best friend or my boyfriend, and my computer privileges had been taken away

…After months of living in the depths of my own despair…. One day, there He was! my first friend, my first love! …He had always been there, just waiting for me to look at him! He held me for a little while as I just cried. I couldn’t believe I had lost sight of so much joy and peace for a boy! A boy who was just going to break up with me again and again and again. I took a good hour or so to just bask in His presence- He was all I needed.

After months of rebuilding my relationship with my parents and months of trying to figure out what I was going to do about this boy who had meant so much to me, I decided to break up with him- for good. God became my best friend again, all I wanted was what he wanted, and he wanted me to respect my parents, he wanted me to love others, and he wanted me to love myself. I have been living a life of purpose ever since. 

A testimony is all about the milestones in a person’s life, places where God has said to you, “you pass this phase, now keep on.” I have so many more milestones to complete in my life and the next one starts in YWAM. I can’t wait to see God sign off on another completed mile and I can’t wait to begin the next one.

A Warrior for the King,
Bekah