I am three days away from my first month of summer being over. It has flown by! I have enjoyed being home with my family and not having to worry about whether or not I was going to have a good supper at night. 🙂 We have made multiple trips to my grandparents house, attended a few concerts and a Mudcat’s baseball game and just relaxed around the house. Amongst all of this I have found that my relationship with God hasn’t really been a top priority. This led to another realization (one I think of quite often) that I was lucky enough to have a pretty awesome first year of college. This leads me to my point. When most people think of college they think very stereotypically – that may or may not be an actual word –  College is supposed to be the time when you made stupid mistakes, do all these rebellious activities you will no longer be able to do once you graduate and enter the real world, right? My experience didn’t revolve around those things or really much that I thought it would. Developing the deepest relationship with Christ that I have ever had didn’t cross my mind.

The first week of school my roommate and I received numerous papers slid underneath our door from various organizations. One caught our eye. This was the Cru Women’s Bible Study in our building. At the time I had no idea that this is how I would meet my best friends. From then on, every Monday night consisted of Bible Study and fellowship with the sweetest girls and inspiring leaders. Don’t forget the weekly Bachelor viewings, Cookout runs and tons of laughs. Through late nights and beach retreats we all grew closer to Christ as we grew closer to each other. I have grown up in a Christian home since I was born and I accepted Christ into my heart my sophomore year of high school. It wasn’t until this past year that I really realized how badly I needed Him in my life. It wasn’t something my parents, pastor or anyone but myself could teach me. I finally found a good circle of true friends to surround myself with, I let go of things in the past and I surrendered my life to him: giving up “my plans” and trusting in His plans for me instead. 

Not having my weekly study with my girls since I have been home has definitely put a damper in my relationship with Christ. My mind seems to be filled with summer school and how many more days until I get to do the next exciting summer activity. How lucky are we as Christians to have a God that still continues to love and care for us even when we drift away from or disobey him? God has reasoning behind everything. He forgets our past, the stupid mistakes we make and the times we drift away and then find ourselves running back to him. He’s forever there with open arms. God blessed me with time to spend with family, hot summer days by the pool or at the beach, the ability to take summer school online so I can stay in my pajamas until 2 o’clock and a beautiful life he continues to shape and mold in his timing. The least I can do is get back into reading my Bible as much as I used to and praying even more. Instead of putting Christ on “hold” over the summer, I am making it a goal and priority of mine to get back to and strengthen the relationship I had with him a month ago. 

So shoutout to all my “Heilman B-Stud” ladies: I love and miss every one of you very much. Thank you for the influence you had on me this past year! I can’t wait for sophomore year and hope we can all come back to Meredith in the fall as close to each other AND Christ as we were when we left a month ago.