A New Creature

As soon as I wrote that title I realized that anyone who has read my blogs for a while was probably thinking, 'what have they found in their house now??' Ha! But, I'm going to be a little more serious today. Just a little. :)

July 27th is one of the most important days of my life and honestly there is only one other person who I know always remembers it the same as me. You see, I consider today my spiritual birthday. Now, I asked Jesus into my heart when I was seven and was baptized and I believe that it was a genuine decision. But it wasn't until July 27, 1994 that God really got ahold of me and I fell in love with Him.

I was 13 that summer, close to 14 and my family had just moved back to Panama City from Orange Park, Fl. We returned to the church I had gone to when I was younger, but there was a new crowd in the youth group. They invited me to go to summer camp with them and it was a total prompting by God that I went because I was EXTREMELY shy back in those days. But I went and despite severe sleep deprivation and the fact that the lessons were about the rapture and the new earth and other stuff I don't think I will understand until I am at least 80, God spoke to me. As I said I was 13 and I had recently made some bad choices that I really regretted. I am actually thankful for them now because it was through those bad choices and my need for forgiveness that God really became real to me.

Even though I had grown up hearing my whole life how much God loved me and that Jesus had died for my sins, it didn't really ring true with me until I actually had sins that to me seemed so big. The Spirit worked on me so much and I fought it. By the time I actually went down the aisle everyone had left and I had to go find my group! I ended up with two of our leaders and my friend Brandi. We both made the decision that night to make things right with God and start living our lives the way He wanted us to. Mrs. Gina encouraged me to write in the cover of my Bible the decision I made so that I would never doubt again. I have always been as malodramatic as I am on this blog and I wrote a long paragraph about tears streaming down my face and feeling the love of all the Christians. :) I still have that Bible and it is literally falling apart. I have to keep it in its cover because the front cover has completely come off. I become sentimental on this day every year and take it down to look at. I think that it might be my most prized material possession.

You see, lots of kids go to church camps and they have a good time and then they go home and go back to life. That didn't happen for me. I became enthralled with God's Word and would spend hours reading it at night. Granted, I didn't understand a lot of it, but little by little God has continued to open my eyes and heart and help me to grasp what His Words mean. My brokeded Bible is full of quotes, notes, and prayer requests. It is almost like a time capsule to me. I used it all the way through high school. One verse that was life changing for me was 2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" Don't you love the exclamation point? If I had written any of the Bible it would have been obnoxious with the overuse of exclamation points! I can't explain how much that verse meant to me. I am still overwhelmed by the reality that ANYONE, no matter what has happened in your past, is eligible to be a new creation in God's eyes. Unbelievable! And let me tell you, the 13 year old version of me would not have believed for a second that the 28 year old me would be a preacher's wife!!!! (Or have 3 kids or be married to Josh Fidler from Ms. Barfield's 5th grade class, but that is a whole other story.) I was just so grateful that God considered me worthy of His attention at all!

So, I just want to take time today to thank my Father for this birthday. And for the gifts He continues to give me everyday of my life. One of those is my friendship with Brandi. How incredibly loving of God to not only make me a new creation, but to also let me walk the path with someone starting at the exact same point? Brandi and I experienced everything under the sun together from church musicals, history homework, boy drama (oh, you just don't even wanna know!), Ramettes, being senior class officers together, and eating Taco Bell like it was going out of style! But, the greatest thing we have always shared is our spiritual connection. Our excitement about learning new verses such as one of our first favorites Romans 8:31. "If God is for us, who can be against us? "

We've spent countless hours praying together, writing encouraging notes, and sharing our
heartches. And God has also placed her in the role of a minister's wife. Her husband is minister to college students in Daytona, FL (and no, I am not the least bit jealous that they live right on the beach :) and he also leads worship. Just this past week he left to lead worship at a church camp and I thought back to our camp days and the way we would swoon over the worship leaders. Isn't that hilarious?? Brandi's husband is the worship leader! How did that happen?

These days we have SIX, yes I said SIX kids between us and so our bonding time is usually short and interuppted frequently. But we have been blessed with one of those friendships where we can go weeks or even months without talking and then pick right back up. I am often amazed at the way we deal with the same things and are able to still understand each other's lives so well.

Well, enough of my sentimental ramblings. I just couldn't let this day pass without sharing what God did for me 15 years ago today. Or without saying Happy Birthday Brandi!!! Next year is our Sweet 16!!