An update from Carson on how God continues to work in her life. To God be the glory for all He has done and continues to do for us.
I do not remember a time in my life where I did not know who
Jesus was. I grew up in a Christian home not just going to church but being
heavily involved in all aspects as my parents served in various roles. As a
young child, my mom was the church secretary, my dad was a deacon, and they
both worked with the youth group. Needless to say, we were always there serving
in some capacity as a family. I enjoyed this as it was an opportunity for me to
hang out with friends or eat delicious food considering many of our activities
included a good ol’ Baptist potluck. My parents made the reason behind our
involvement in church very clear to me as a child. I knew we were serving not
only people but also God. They also made it very clear that we were to be the
same people at church as we were at home and vice versa. I knew how to do the
right thing no matter who was looking because I knew that was what was expected
of me.
When I was seven years old, I remember hearing several of
the kids in my class at school talk about how they had gotten saved, and it
made me start to think about myself. I thought I was a good kid, and I knew
about Jesus, but I had never accepted His gift of salvation for myself. My mom
and I would do a mother daughter devotional on some evenings. One night after
reading the devotional for the day, my mom led me to the Lord. I do not
remember much about the specifics of that evening. What I do remember is
praying to the Lord, acknowledging my need for a Savior. I then went to tell my
dad and he started to cry. This seemed unusual to me as this is the first time
I ever remembered my dad crying so it made me realize just how important what I
had done was. My whole life had been surrounded by the gospel, so I did not
realize how incredible my salvation really was. From then on, I continued being
the good kid always trying to do my best. A few years later my mom became a
teacher at the Christian school that my brothers and I attended. Because of
this we had to change churches, which made me quite nervous as our dear little
church family I had grown up with was all I had ever known. My parents knew
this change was difficult, but they encouraged us to remember God’s hand in it
all and sought to lead us in this new path God had clearly laid before them.
For the remainder of my elementary years to my junior year in high
school, my life seemed relatively easy. I did not face much adversity, and I
was coasting through life doing what I knew I was supposed to do. Academics
came easily to me, and I realized I did not have to try very hard in that realm
in order for people to be proud of me. I fed into this and always tried to get
the best grades because I felt it was something I could be better than everyone
else at. Aside from this I also prided myself on being the “good kid” as I
always had. I was occasionally made fun of with the typical names of “goody two
shoes” or “teacher’s pet,” but it was well worth it to me to feel I was gaining
the approval of all of the adults in my life. During my junior year I began to
deeply struggle with anxiety. I let it take over my life and the anxiousness I
felt slowly began to control everything I did in my life. It made going to
school and playing sports more difficult than it had ever been, and worst of
all, I felt that everyone on the outside could finally see that I struggled
too. I am not sure where this notion of pretending like I did not struggle came
from, but it was at this point in my life when I was face to face with it that
I could not deny its existence. There is a much longer story here that I
have written about before but in summary this was the first time in my life
where I faced the realization that I am nothing, God is everything, and I
cannot do anything in life on my own. I felt God more in this season of my life
than I ever had before. It was the hardest thing I had ever faced, but it
changed me in incredible ways. My whole outlook on my life and my relationship
with my Savior was not the same.
And now we come to this school year. It has been hard and
surprise, surprise… I have not arrived. The Lord has shown me over and over
that my relationship with Him must be established on my own outside of just
falling under the umbrella of just believing what my parents believe. As my
mom’s blog is titled “My Race to Win” I have come to realize I have my own race
to win. Not my mom’ s race, not my dad’s race, but mine all on my own. No, I
cannot abandon all I have learned in my twenty years of learning from my
parents and other influential leaders in my life. What I realized now is that
is all training for me to be equipped to run my own race. They have lived their
lives as an example to me so that I can have a great head start. What I have
also come to realize is the importance of the gospel in my own live. As I
mentioned before the gospel has surrounded my life since before I existed. I
realize now that this is truly a blessing from God, but for so long I did not
stand in the wonder that it truly is. God created me knowing who I would be in
all of my sin. He sent His Son to die for me knowing I would reject Him. Jesus
rose again to defeat death in order to live with me forever. God loves me
unconditionally and continues to have a personal relationship with me even
though I continually fail to love Him. What God does for me makes no sense at
all, yet there it is for me to partake in freely. It only takes a second for me
to be amazed at the goodness of God and the truth of the gospel when I stop to
think about it. These thoughts have challenged me to live out the gospel. The
love of God is unfathomable. If I truly love Him, why would I not want to share
what He has done for me? I am not perfect, and I have been faced with that fact
many times over my life, but I know a God Who is. God has given me so much, and
I have come to realize the least I can do is spend my life serving Him and
living for His glory. I am challenged to find new ways to show Christ's love to
others and live out my love for Him. If you find yourself questioning God’s love,
just take a moment to look at the life He has enabled you to live. Life is not
easy, and He does not promise us it will be, but God is faithful. God knows
you, and He loves you anyway. He is the answer. All we have to do is run to
Him.