Before I met God, my relationship with him was so bland, despite the fact that I was the perfect picture of what a Christian child should look like. My dad was a pastor, and I was the second youngest in our large family.
I was the first one to quote a scripture at the right time, smile, or say something kind to someone sad, and—to most people’s chagrin—make sure everyone always followed the rules completely (in fact to this day, I’m still a stickler for rules).
But my personal relationship with God felt dry and lifeless. I’d show up to church each Sunday with my family, read my Bible on occasion, and pray when I was supposed to—but all I was doing was going through the motions.
I felt like this was as good as my relationship with God was going to get. I didn’t think I’d get any closer to Him, or maybe, if I did, it’d be some time off in the future, but certainly not right now. Praying and reading my Bible are just boring, I thought, and there’s not much more to Christianity than not doing bad things, telling others that God wants to help them, and getting to heaven.
I couldn’t have been any more wrong.
When I was 12 years old, I had my first real encounter with God. Nothing weird or creepy, just a pure, raw awareness of His Spirit and His love for me. I talked about that experience in this blog post.
From that point on, I learned something incredible: God cares about me as an individual and He wants to work in my life in ways I never could’ve imagined.
A few months after that experience, I again felt the presence of God so strongly when I was praying in our barn’s loft, and that experience was life changing.
I met God for who He really is.
God took me on a journey (one that I’m still not at the end of!) and began showing me through His word who He is and what He wants to do in my life…and in the lives of all of His followers.
What I saw was mind-blowing.
I realized that God wanted to give me victory in this life, and not just the life to come (1 Corinthians 15:57). When I found out I didn’t have to wait until heaven to have victory over the enemy, everything changed for me.
So I started blogging in December of 2022, wanting to share with other young women what God was teaching me through scripture and with His Spirit.
Lately, God has been reminding me of the truth in Psalm 133:1, “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers [and sisters] to dwell together in unity!”
Here at The Grace Haus, it is my desire to cultivate a community where we can share the word of God with each other, pray for one another, and all grow in our faith and individual walks with God…together.
This is a place where you are valued, wanted, respected, and loved.