Karly.Ann.Love

I truly believe I will forever be in awe at how God works.

Day in and day out we do not see how much he is working in our lives, then something happens and it all hits us that he was working in our lives the whole time. There may be a period of your life that you feel alone, stressed, and quite frankly lost but I promise you if in your heart you believe in Him then he is working in your life.

There are multiple times in my life where this was the case: my parents refusing to pay for an out of state college, my rope swing accident, the sexual assault I endured, and so many more but below I am going to talk about the one that happened most recently.

Earlier this year I was having to fill out paperwork for my position in the Army. This paperwork requires a personal recommendation covering 10 years back, for this I put down my best friend because her solely could cover this requirement. For an array of reasons she was unable to complete the interview which required me to reach out to multiple people that could fulfill this requirement instead. One of the people I reached out to was Dylan, he was my best friend through high school and I could not tell you an exact reason why but I had not talked to him in years. Him being him was more than happy to do this for me and then he took it a step further, he asked if I would hop on the phone with him to catch up and to see how I was doing. At the end of the phone call Dylan asked if I wanted to join his small group at Bayside Church, they were meeting up virtually at the time due to COVID-19 so he offered for me to try it out and see if I wanted to join. I nervously agreed and it was the best decision I made in 2020.

The people I met in the small group welcomed me with open arms, loved on me, and helped me rebuild my relationship with God. You see, after I was sexually assaulted at my Christian college I turned my back on God. I was angry and I was hurt that he would allow that to happen to me in a place that was supposed to not only grow my academic knowledge but my knowledge of Him as well. I had attended church here and there but could never get over my anger. These friends I made helped me overcome that anger, but it never would have happened if my best friend was able to complete the personal recommendation interview for me. At that time I was so angry with her because something that would have been so simple turned into the most stressful situation for me. Now it is a different story because I can honestly say I would not change a thing. A time of turmoil and tears led to creating a relationship with God again and getting rebaptized. That is the beauty of how God works.