Life of a Tennis Shoe Wearin' Gal
Some girls wear heels
Some girls wear sandals
Some girls wear tennis shoes
Some girls wear boots
Some girls wear flip flops
I wear tennis shoes (most of the time).
However, that's not exactly what this blog post is about; this blog post is a quick synopsis of a small town college girl and her walk with Christ. First off, thanks to my best friend Beth Jenkins for taking these awesome pictures at Sweet Heart Circle at GSU. Check her out at http://wanderingforevermore.com/ she has awesome stuff on her blog.
Okay so this story starts long long ago........
A family of four welcomed a brown hair brown eyed little baby girl. She grew up with two older brothers that were very competitive. Her mom was a teacher and her dad worked at a hardware store. She had a wonderful family and loved them dearly. She grew up going to church and always believed in Jesus/God. However, school was not always easy for this small town girl; she was bullied all the time and hurt everyday (verbally). She started to question whether or not God was really real and actually loved her. "If there really is a God why isn't he helping me?" her 10 year old mind would ask.
Anyways she kept going to church and did everything she could at the church. Vacation Bible School, Sunday School, Big church, children's group, youth group, Bible studies...etc. she did it all. Her church was her "safe haven" so to speak. She had a childlike faith for most of her life and never really grew closer to God, but grew further and further away from him. Now she never drank or went to wild parties or smoked....etc. anything like that. She always lived a very moral life, but when she hit 7th grade is when it all changed.
The bullying got much much worse and she started to distant herself more and more from her family and drew closer and closer to her safe haven that she had which was church. She put everything into trying to please everyone which was making her exhausted. Then one night, she was in her room and decided she couldn't take it anymore. She couldn't take the constant bullying at school, drama going on at home, and many other things going on in her life. At school the next day, one of her teachers noticed something was really really wrong with her behavior and how she was acting. The teacher went to the school's counselor and the counselor called the girl into her office. Before the girl knew it she was being sent home to get some help and support from people. This girl was a good girl and never knew that she would want to take her own life, but that was her reality. Thankfully nothing ever happened ever to the girl.
Fast forward to Senior year, she is at a private Christian school and she loves it and doesn't want to leave. Applying to college is a lot harder than she had ever thought it would be. She wants to go to her dream college but is being told no. People were telling her to go to a two year college closer to home and not go off to a four year college just yet. Her heart was breaking because she wanted more than ever to go to a four year college.
Her first freshman year of college is starting off and she's wanting to get involved somewhere and try to make some friends which she isn't good at really. Someone tells her to look at a campus ministry and so she does. She is very shy at first but slowly opens up to her new group of friends, but she's still holding back so much and has bitterness towards her past and what happened to her during 7th grade. God had a plan for her new group of friends to point her back to him and welcome her with open arms. Which they did just that and she couldn't be anymore grateful. So that October, at fall retreat, she became a Christian through Campus Outreach.
That girl...........................is me!
Yep! You better believe it. I was that girl in the story. I'm not going to put "the end" because my life and my journey isn't over with quite yet. God is still working in me everyday and I couldn't be anymore joyful! Easter is upon us and I'm grateful every year I get to celebrate the RESURRECTION of MY RISEN SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, Happy Easter everyone,
God bless,
Lecie Fitzner
