Hi friends! I just finished year 2 of college and would love to share with you everything that I learned… even though I am still processing things haha :))
DOING COLLEGE MINISTRY
As some of you may know or not know, I was a community group leader in my college dorm hall this year! My school is awesome and has a system where there is leadership in all the halls on campus. Last year, I felt really led by the Lord to be a community group leader and I am so glad that I listened to the Holy Spirit’s leading. The role of a community group leader is to lead a small group every Wednesday night after having almost like an extra “church service” called Campus Community at my school :). Each community group leader is assigned people in their hall that will be in their small group. I had 7 AMAZING girls that were intentionally picked by the Lord. I know that being a community group leader was a big part of my school year for my sophomore year. I can not imagine what my school year would have looked like if I was not in this leadership role.
Being in leadership helped me to share the love of Christ with not only the girls in my group but all the girls in my hall and everyone around me. I saw the Lord move and work in miraculous ways. Even on nights I did not feel capable, felt nervous, or was just too tired, I saw God carry me every single time. This ministry showed me how to depend on the Lord in a whole new way. It also helped me to grow more in my relationship with Christ. I saw God’s goodness and faithfulness through this ministry and every single day of my life. I am so beyond thankful and blessed by this ministry. The Lord is amazing!!!
MY RELATIONSHIP WITH THE LORD
Since this year April 2023, I have been following the Lord for 3 years now!!! With sharing how my relationship with God has been recently in college, I am going to be honest with you guys.. it has not been easy – in fact, I feel like that I have been challenged a lot recently in my relationship with Christ. I have definitely had hard days this school year and days where I was not consistent in spending time with God as I would have liked to. This was very hard for me because I absolutely love spending time with Jesus, but when distractions and difficulties came it was so hard to. Through this time and something that I am still working through with the Lord, is learning how to have grace on myself because of the grace God has given me. I do tend to be the worst critic of myself and get so hard on myself when God is so patient with me.
As Christians, we are going to have hard days and in those days it gives us an opportunity to press into Jesus and depend on Him. Through my hardest days, God taught me to depend on Him which I love because the word “abide” (which means to remain) is my word for this year 2023 and the Lord has surely given me many situations to depend on and remain in Him. John 15:4 says, “Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me”. This verse is my verse for the year and reminds me to remain in Jesus on the hard and easy days and for the rest of my life. As we remain in Jesus, He remains in us and in this way we get to know our Lord more and more.
Psalm 103:8 says, “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love” – This verse reminds me of the Lord’s character and how He is patient towards and with me, on the days I feel like I am hard on myself
A FEW LESSONS I LEARNED AND AM STILL LEARNING
One of the lessons I learned and still learning is that my academic success does not define me. It is so easy in school, to get worked up with your future and your grades. I feel that there were many points where I did allow my academic successes to define me when really I am defined by Jesus Christ alone. This is for you too – your worth and identity come from Jesus, not your grades, not your clothes, not your status, not anything but Christ. We are defined by God because He created us. I feel like God is humbling me in this area and I am still learning every day. I learned that in school as long as I try my best and I give everything else to God that is good enough because I know I tried and gave it to God. Even if giving whatever it might be to God is hard, I can ask Him to help me to surrender what it is that needs to be surrendered.
Another thing I am still learning is trusting God with my future. The future is unknown and can be easy to worry about. Over and over again God shows me why I do not need to be afraid or worried. He takes care of everything. Over and over again I go through situations that were worrisome and yet God took care of it. Matthew 6:34 says, “Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own”. Philippians 4:6-7 says, “Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus”. These two verses give me confidence that I do not need to be afraid because my God is in control of every day of my life. If I am afraid, I can pray and present my requests to Him in petition and thanksgiving. In that, His peace will surround and guard me – the same is for you, friends. I want to constantly remember that God is in control of my life, He is Lord over my life, so, therefore, I am safe in the palm of His Mighty, Sovereign Hands. There are of course many other lessons I learned but these were the main lessons I wanted to share :). I learned a lot about rest and wrote a blog on it if you want to check it out: https://spreadingodslove.com/2022/12/16/the-importance-of-rest-and-sabbath/
FAVORITE MEMORIES
Some of my favorite memories came from meeting new people and trying new things! This year, I met a lot of new people which is so much fun because I love meeting new people!! Some of the new activities that I tried were just going to events that I had not before – like my school’s basketball and hockey games. I tried rock climbing with some of my friends which was A LOT of fun!!! I also did ice skating – which I can’t remember the last time that I did it or maybe I never did haha but it was exciting! So overall, there were many highlights to my year that made it enjoyable and fun!
Thank you for reading through this blog, friends!! With being on summer break, I am hoping that I will be able to write more about what God is doing in my life and the different things that He is teaching me. Let me know if there is any topic you would like me to talk about! I pray over all of you and hope you have a fantastic day!!
Love Bea ♡
Spreading God's Love 