Rebecca's Story!

When Jennifer first asked me to write a testimony for Love Unawakened, I was like, Great! I get to share something God’s been teaching me! … which one do I choose? After much prayer and consideration, I’m going to share something God really just kept pounding into my head my junior and senior years: seek and follow Him.


Over the past couple of years, people had started asking me more and more often: “So what college are you going to? What are you going to study?” – all of those questions. I don’t know how old you are, but if you’re a junior or senior in high school, I’m sure you know exactly what I’m talking about! The thing is, I never really wanted to go to college, and I certainly had NO IDEA what I would major in. All I ever really had a desire to do is to get married and be a homemaker, and I didn’t really think college could prepare me for that. But our society now pretty much teaches that if you make good grades, you go to college. That’s just how it works.

Since I was afraid of being thought of as weird, I would just tell people, “I don’t know,” or “I haven’t decided yet.” I didn’t know. And I was getting really confused. Everyone thinks I’m supposed to go to college. It’s so expensive, but I could probably get a scholarship. But I just don’t know if I could handle all the stress of college homework. And what about the professors? A lot of them aren’t Christians. But going to college is just what everyone does. It might be fun. I could probably handle it. It would just be really awesome if I could homeschool college just like I did high school. But yeah, like that’s possible. Back and forth my thoughts went for months and months. Finally, I decided I should start praying about it more. Then through a series of events, God began to make His will clear, and direct my paths.

As I go back through my journals, it’s plain to see that God was working on my heart, but I wasn’t seeing clearly. I would be considering a college, then “No, it’s too far away, or too expensive, or too liberal.” One by one, God closed doors, and instead of simply looking around for the open door, I would stare down in confusion.

I am so very thankful that my parents never pushed me to go to college. They never discouraged my desire to prepare to be a wife and mother, and they always encouraged me to seek God’s will about what to do. We talked about that it might be a good idea for me to have a degree of some sort in case that ever becomes a law in Alabama that you have to have a degree to homeschool your kids. But I still had no idea how I was going to get that degree, or what my major would be.

For a while I had an attitude of “Well, I would make my plans, but God won’t tell me what to do!” Then I started to realize, He had been showing me little pieces of His plan all along. I think oftentimes, we complain because God won’t let us see down the road. I do, anyway. Our pastor used an excellent illustration of that that was really eye-opening to me. When I’m driving home in the dark, I’ve got my headlights on, right? But when I’m looking down the road, I can only see as far as the beam of light from my headlights – I can’t see all the way to my house! The amazing thing is that when I drive a little bit into the light that I do have, then the beam of light moves farther ahead. And so on it goes all the way home. That’s kind of like how God’s will is for us. He only shows it to us a little bit at a time, as we can handle it. Then as we move forward in faith, He gradually reveals more and more, as He guides us safely all the way through life.

But back to the story. As I was saying, God gradually revealed His will to me little by little. One big piece came when I was reading through Isaiah the summer before my senior year. I knew that if I was going to go to college, I really needed to start looking into scholarships and stuff. I had been thinking and praying about it a lot, then one day I was reading in Isaiah and all of a sudden, one verse just popped straight off the page. Have you ever had that happen, where it seems like the verse is written in all caps, size 72 font, bold and underlined? That’s how it seemed when I read that verse, and I knew that it was God’s direct answer to me. Isaiah 8:11 – “For the LORD spoke thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people.” I believe God was telling me then and there that moving off to college (the generally assumed thing to do after high school) isn’t for me. So we began looking into distance learning options.

I’m not sure exactly when, but at some point later in my senior year, we got an e-mail about a new online college program called “CollegePlus!” It sounded like something I might be interested in, so my mom looked into it. Well, to sum up the story, I enrolled in July, and I still believe this was God’s plan for me. I’m earning a four year degree by taking CLEP and DANTES tests (you take the test, and if you pass, it counts like you took a whole college class). So far, in 5 months, I have earned 24 hours of college credit. I’m still involved in my church and home doing what I love!

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not totally against women going to college. Sometimes a traditional college may open doors, and provide many ministry opportunities that would not otherwise be available. But God showed me that unless I am in the center of His will while working toward a degree, it would be utterly worthless.

My point is this: seek God’s will for YOU personally – don’t just do something because everyone else is doing it, and everyone expects you to, also. God may have something for you that will fit much better into HIS plan for YOUR life, if you’ll just keep your heart open to His leading.

And as far as college goes, definitely pray a lot about it, and ask your parents for advice, too. If you’re interested in the program I’m doing, you can learn more about it at www.collegeplus.org.

I’d like to close with the lyrics of a song that really meant a lot to me around graduation. I was feeling weird for not going to college like all my friends, then they started playing this song on WDJC. It really encouraged me to not go with the flow if God was leading me a different direction. This song is really the theme song of my whole senior year.



What if there's something bigger for me out there

Than the comfort of a life on this middle ground?

I've played it safe but now I can't help but wonder

If maybe I've been missing out



'Cause I look around and see a sea of people

Everybody's moving in the same direction

And I think it's time to break away, break away



CHORUS

I wanna finally take the road less traveled

I wanna run away from anything typical

I want the world to see the life I'm livin'

And call it

Uncommon



What if the right thing was harder than the wrong thing

But I did it anyway?

Standing strong even when no one else was watching

What if I really lived that way?



Every heart has it's defining moment

This is mine and I'm not gonna miss it



CHORUS 2

I wanna finally take the road less traveled

I wanna run away from anything typical

I want the world to see the life I'm livin'

And call it

Uncommon



I don't care if it makes me look different

I'm never letting go of my convictions

Let the world see the life I'm livin'

And call it

Uncommon



What if I made it to the end of my days here

Only to find that my legacy is nowhere to be found

I don't wanna waste another second

Give me the strength to start right now

CHORUS

- “Uncommon,” written by Matthew West, recorded by Greg Long and Kristy Starling



God bless you, dear sister, as you seek to follow God’s will for your life.

Love,

Rebecca

Proverbs 3:5-6