Now that you know that I wasn’t always an angel, I’ll move on to my sophomore
year of high school.
I had just turned 16 when I started talking to Ryan. Of course I thought he was all that and a bag of chips :), and I was SO excited when I found out he wanted to date me. I loved everything about him. I thought he was so handsome and funny. It didn’t take long at all before we were inseparable.
Cheesy, cheesy, I know, but I still get butterflies just thinking about how much fun we had my last few years of high school. We were in love. I don’t care what anyone else has to say about high school love! :) We knew we wanted to be together forever – when we thought of the future, 5- 10- 30- 50- years ahead, we always imagined ourselves next to each other. Not only did we have a lot of fun together, but there was something that made us both want to be the best person we could be when we were with each other. We didn’t know why, but we both knew that we wanted our lives to change for the better. So we worked hard to make each other be the best person we could be.
Everyone thought we were crazy. He was out of high school of course, and everyone would ask why on earth I would want to be in such a “serious” relationship at my age. We both just knew we would get married and have a life together, but there wasn’t a whole lot of “serious” about our relationship – we really just had a lot of fun together! (I know, I’m a cheeseball!) But, to this day, we have never had to work hard to love each other. I’m truly a blessed girl.
It was my senior year of high school when we were both introduced to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Coming from a background of no knowledge or thoughts about religion, I was pretty skeptical of the whole creation story and everything leading up to salvation and eternity with an all-knowing, all-powerful God.
It all just sounded… crazy.
I had just turned 16 when I started talking to Ryan. Of course I thought he was all that and a bag of chips :), and I was SO excited when I found out he wanted to date me. I loved everything about him. I thought he was so handsome and funny. It didn’t take long at all before we were inseparable.
Cheesy, cheesy, I know, but I still get butterflies just thinking about how much fun we had my last few years of high school. We were in love. I don’t care what anyone else has to say about high school love! :) We knew we wanted to be together forever – when we thought of the future, 5- 10- 30- 50- years ahead, we always imagined ourselves next to each other. Not only did we have a lot of fun together, but there was something that made us both want to be the best person we could be when we were with each other. We didn’t know why, but we both knew that we wanted our lives to change for the better. So we worked hard to make each other be the best person we could be.
Everyone thought we were crazy. He was out of high school of course, and everyone would ask why on earth I would want to be in such a “serious” relationship at my age. We both just knew we would get married and have a life together, but there wasn’t a whole lot of “serious” about our relationship – we really just had a lot of fun together! (I know, I’m a cheeseball!) But, to this day, we have never had to work hard to love each other. I’m truly a blessed girl.
It was my senior year of high school when we were both introduced to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Coming from a background of no knowledge or thoughts about religion, I was pretty skeptical of the whole creation story and everything leading up to salvation and eternity with an all-knowing, all-powerful God.
It all just sounded… crazy.
Almost everyone who knows us has heard about how the
Drahotas evangelized to us for months
and eventually lead us to Christ. But for me, it really did take a long time to let go of my skepticism
for long enough to just open my eyes, ears and heart and listen to the gospel.
I know this sounds totally cliché in every possible way, but
one day, I just knew. For some reason I have always been embarrassed to tell
this story, but…
Here’s a quick background story: My entire life, I have had a serious fear of darkness, closing in around me. No matter where I was at, if I were alone and walking somewhere with darkness behind me (whether it be at night from a car to a house, or from our basement bathroom to go upstairs) – I would see things. I would see these faces behind me; most often, I would see the same man’s scary face looking at me through corners of doors. That happened throughout my entire life. (Weird, I know.) But anyway..
I was working at a law office and one day and I had run down to the basement to file some documents. It’s a really long, dark basement where you have to turn off several lights on your way back up, so when you are leaving there is a lot of darkness behind you. That always gave me the real heebie-jeebies and I would have this sense of fear creep up and I would sprint as fast as I could to get up the stairs and out of there. (I bet if one of my co-workers from that office read this, they might chuckle at me for that..)
Well, one day I was getting ready to head back upstairs and I was turning off the lights. Like every other time, I had fear of what was lurking in the darkness, that something might somehow get me. Instead of running as fast as I could to get out of there, I just stopped where I was standing, with several dark rooms behind me.
Here’s a quick background story: My entire life, I have had a serious fear of darkness, closing in around me. No matter where I was at, if I were alone and walking somewhere with darkness behind me (whether it be at night from a car to a house, or from our basement bathroom to go upstairs) – I would see things. I would see these faces behind me; most often, I would see the same man’s scary face looking at me through corners of doors. That happened throughout my entire life. (Weird, I know.) But anyway..
I was working at a law office and one day and I had run down to the basement to file some documents. It’s a really long, dark basement where you have to turn off several lights on your way back up, so when you are leaving there is a lot of darkness behind you. That always gave me the real heebie-jeebies and I would have this sense of fear creep up and I would sprint as fast as I could to get up the stairs and out of there. (I bet if one of my co-workers from that office read this, they might chuckle at me for that..)
Well, one day I was getting ready to head back upstairs and I was turning off the lights. Like every other time, I had fear of what was lurking in the darkness, that something might somehow get me. Instead of running as fast as I could to get out of there, I just stopped where I was standing, with several dark rooms behind me.
I stopped and I
prayed.
I prayed right then and there that I would find Jesus in my
heart. That, if He were really there, I could stop being afraid.
It was in that exact moment
that God had softened my heart and filled me with the Holy Spirit. I felt this
peace in my soul that I had never experienced in my life before that moment.
I wasn’t afraid any longer. I knew that He was right there with me, that if there were evil spirits lurking around me, I would be safe.
From that day forward, I knew God was real. I had felt Him come into my life in the instant that I felt I really needed Him, and He hasn’t left my side since.
Jason baptized me about a month later.
(to be continued..)
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