For WMD today, I wanted to share what a former student of mine wrote.  It is so powerful, and I just felt God like crazy while reading it.  I knew you guys would do the same.  I am blessed to know Hannah Grant Harris.  She was without a doubt one of the best students I ever had.  Here we go . . . 

I have felt led to share my testimony for a while now. This is only a short part of my testimony because it would honestly take page after page to share more of how God has worked and moved in my life. As the Lord leads, I hope to share more of my story and how I have lived and continue to live in the goodness of God. 

Most of you know that I’ve grown up in church my entire life. I’ve learned what the Bible says, and I was saved at a very young age. I lived my life for God, and I had a strong faith and trust in Him. When I was in high school, I didn’t date much. I spent my time with friends, and I enjoyed that. Well in my senior year of high school, I met a guy that seemed to genuinely like me. We talked and we ended up dating. I thought he was the one because I fell for all the little things I thought he did for me. He was more talk than actually putting his words and feelings in action. Well as our relationship continued, I fell into temptation with sexual sin. Then, the thing that shook my whole world happened as a freshman in college. I found out I was pregnant. I was terrified because I knew that I was caught in my sin. I didn’t know what to do. I had honestly lost myself and who I was. Well, the true hurt came when I had to tell my family. I knew I’d disappoint them, and I did. 

Then it came to disappointing my church family. I was a leader in the church…sang on the praise team and helped teach in children’s church. That was completely pulled from me when my pastor at that time found out I was pregnant. I was completely crushed, hurt, and ashamed of myself. I know you’re thinking “Wow, your pastor took that away from you? Why’d you even keep going?” My pastor at that time did not do this to put shame on me. He did not do this because he hated me. He did that because a person that is not in the right place with God should not be a leader in the church. It’s a tough, but true reality. I was hurting, but my pastor showed me nothing but love. I can’t even begin to tell you how much he and my pastor’s wife loved and supported me along with the rest of my family and church family. My family, friends, and church helped me more than they’ll ever know!

But this whole messy situation should have sent me out of church, into depression, and into a life of continuous sin. That was satan’s plan, but God’s plans were greater!  I took my time away from leadership to focus on my relationship with God. I continued to grow, but it took ending my toxic relationship to truly reach a breakthrough. I learned so much through that time, and I realized that I needed to leave that sin and grow into a close relationship with God. I wanted to be a leader in church again. God had called me to work for Him and build up His kingdom, and I did not want to lose that. I rededicated my life to the Lord, and through the work of the Lord, I was able to rejoin the praise team and teach children’s church. I say all this to say that sometimes we’re not at the right place with God. Sometimes we need a good wakeup call or discipline to help us realize this. We need someone to say “you’re not doing what you need to be doing” so we can get a reality check before it’s too late. I know I needed that. I don’t think I could ever thank my former pastor enough for showing me the discipline, love, and care that I needed! Through a very difficult time in my life, I learned what was truly important. God was and still is number one in my life. But it took this time in my life to realize that he wasn’t my number one at that time, and I had to get back to putting God first. 

Jayden and I have been blessed in so many different ways since then, so this is just a small part of my testimony. There’s more to share.