Relationship with God

Holly's Story

I grew up in a close loving family. We attended church most weeks but probably more out of a sense of the right thing to do rather than an expression of our personal relationships to God. I have two sisters. They are my very best friends and have contributed significantly to who I am as a person. My older sister, Layla, spent a lot of time with me at church camp one summer and influenced my embrace of faith in Jesus Christ. I became a Christian at church camp when I was 12 years old.

Over the next few years, my sister and I were very plugged in at church and wanted to be there every time the doors were open. I think witnessing how much God was teaching and changing their girls caused a change in our parents as well. They began to make put their relationships with God at the center of their own lives. To this day, my parents are two of the most selfless, giving people I have ever known, and they love the Lord with their whole heart.

I attended a Christian university, Howard Payne, and loved my experiences there. I think the greatest lesson I learned in college was to love and trust God supremely. I experienced my first real heartbreak at school. I reinvested my love, discipline, and trust to another human being, a boyfriend, who could not satisfy spiritual need . It took some serious breaking, molding, and growing at the Lord's hand to return my focus. I learned that God loved me, treasured me, and desired for me to love Him in ways that no human being could.

Two years later, the same boy who broke my heart became my husband. Because we had both become transformations in progress by the power of Christ, we were better for each other than ever before. That would never have happened without learning the supreme lesson of love for God first.

My husband is the thinker and studier on the finer points of Christian faith. My gift is service. We are mutually thankful for the ways in which we can encourage and support one another as we grow in the faith. We look forward to sharing the influence of Christ with our children.

Looking at my life now, as a wife and a mother, my daily prayer is that others would see the love of Christ through me. I want to be a woman who desires nothing more than to be used by the Lord, in whatever ways He leads me. I desire to grow daily, and to be a source of strength and encouragement in the lives of my husband and my children. I know I have a long way to go--but also that I'm never alone.

Matthew 12:46-50

While he was still speaking to the multitudes, behold, His mother and brothers were standing outside, seeking to speak to Him. And someone said to Him, "Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak to you." But He answered the one who was telling Him and said, "Who is My mother and who are My brothers?" And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, "Behold, My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother."