My testimony of God's goodness and His trustworthiness

I was born in Conroe, Texas, a city about 40 miles N of Houston. I enjoyed it tremendously-both sets of grandparents lived within about 5 miles from us, and so I grew up really enjoying spending the night with them, having big Christmas, birthday, and Thanksgiving get-togethers, and having some really special visits with them. I now have many blessed and very treasured memories that I will happily carry with me forever, memories that I look forward to sharing with my own children someday. We attended Mims Baptist Church, and there, I grew up with some dear friends. I enjoyed being a part of the children's choir, participating in Bible drill, and having parts in the musicals our children's choir put on. It was all so much fun and I thoroughly enjoyed my life there. The thought of us possibly moving never entered into my mind, and I just assumed that I would live there in Conroe forever.

You can imagine my shock when my father began talking of us moving sometime. He became acquainted with the Chattanooga, Tennessee area and we made our first trip up there to "check it out" in 2001. I wasn't too worried about us ever moving there. I just thought that it was all a bunch of talk that would never amount to anything. A few years later, as we began preparing to move, however, my shock very quickly turned into grief, fear, sorrow and anger. I was very angry with my father for leading us to move. I was angry that (as I felt at the time) I was being torn away from my friends, my family, and my happy life. I cried myself to sleep some nights, just thinking about leaving my dear friends and precious family. I had some fear also as to what I would face in Tennessee- would I make friends? Would I hate it there? We moved on January 26th, 2005-I was 12 1/2 years old and in the 7th grade.

I was so pleasantly surprised when I attended the first Wednesday night meeting of the youth group of our new church, Brainerd Baptist. The girls in my grade immediately welcomed me as if they had always known me and we soon became the best of friends. We had a great time together. However, something I thought would never happen happened. In the late spring/early summer of 2006, Daddy began talking about us changing churches. I thought, at first, that he was just joking for some reason. But he wasn't. Come to find out, the Lord had been working in his heart, changing his convictions to line them up in accordance with God's Word, showing Him the truth of the Doctrines of Grace, and showing him the sinfulness of our youth group and how detrimental it was. Then I discovered that he was searching online for reformed Baptist churches in our area. Once he found one, we would be changing churches and begin attending the reformed one. I was furious. I even remember(I'm ashamed to say) saying something to Daddy such as, "I can't believe you're doing this to me again! You've already torn me apart from my friends once; I can't believe you're doing it again!" I was so upset. I was so happy where I was and didn't even want to think about leaving my friends again. I began to think I must be dreaming-this definitely couldn't be happening again. Could it?

Daddy ended up hearing about a family who was going to begin a reformed theology Bible study on Friday nights, in the hopes that the interested families would one day begin a reformed baptist church. We attended the first Bible study, which was held the first Friday in September 2006. There were 6 other families besides us there. When we began attended the Bible studies, I was so bitter and upset. However, the family who began the Bible studies were planning on beginning the reformed church in the spring of 2008. In the meantime, I thought, I could still attend Brainerd on Sundays and Wednesdays, so things wouldn't really be any different. Plus, I thought, with their plan being so far in the future, things would probably fall through before then. So, I began to calm down and return back to my happy self. However, plans changed, and we began meeting together as a congregation on December 10th, 2006. I was so upset! There would be no more Sundays at Brainerd.

It has now been almost a year and a half since we began meeting together for Bible studies, and our church has been an actual congregation for a year. And I couldn't be happier! I praise God and thank Him every single day for taking me from Texas and for then taking me from Brainerd Baptist and placing me instead in this new wonderful, wonderful church. I not see how detrimental the youth group at Brainerd was. It was very unBiblical. The guys and girls there thought about nothing but who was dating who, what boy liked what girl, etc. I praise God for taking me out of and rescuing me from that place. Since the church change, the Lord has introduced me to Vision Forum and has radically changed me and my convictions. Without knowing it, I had become feministic in some areas. The Lord, in His grace and mercy, has shown me the sinful error of my ways and my past convictions.

Unless God had drawn me out of Texas and out of Brainerd, I never would have been changed. And I never would have met the sweet, likeminded families in our church. They are such dear people. I wish I could say that during the two moves, I had been fully and wholeheartedly trusting in my Sovereign Lord and His perfect plans, and was completely yielded to His will, and not my own. I also am ashamed to say that I was not fully submitting or honoring to my earthly father during the two ordeals. I was terribly unhonoring and did not joyfully submit to him as I should have. I'm so thankful that the Lord grabbed a hold this vile, wicked, wretched heart and changed it and its convictions, to put them in accordance with His Word. I was stubborn, unyielding and angry at Him for moving me-not once, but twice. I'm so ashamed of how I acted during those times. But I'm so thankful that the Lord was patient with me, and didn't allow me to have my own way and what I wanted, but rather moved me and by doing so, forever changed me. Praise Him for His goodness!

I wanted to share this testimony with you, in hopes that the Lord would use it to teach you the following lessons:

1. The Lord has always been and will always be completely trustworthy. You can always trust in His plans for you, and know that they are for your good, even if it doesn't always seem like it.
2. God's plans for you are and will always be better than you could ever imagine, hope for, or plan for yourself.

Just trust in Him-He will never let you down!