At the beginning of the summer I entered into a relationship that was so promising and beautiful. Our belief, values, and hearts seemed to be on the same page and I couldn’t believe how much we were “clicking” together. This guy boldly pursued me and ultimately asked me to be his girlfriend, how lucky was I? Love is scary and can be risky, but he was asking me to step into a God honoring relationship with him, so of course I said yes.
After three short months my boyfriend confronted me about our relationship and we ended up breaking up. It crushed me. The first week after the break up was pretty ugly. I was trying to process my thoughts and pull myself together, but I was not being God honoring with my life at all. I would wake up early, lay in bed crying until 12 or 2 in the afternoon, wake up, eat one tiny meal, sit quietly in my room, and go to sleep and then repeat everything again the following day. When I was going through this it didn’t seem so bad, but now it seems slightly crazy of me and I’m quite embarrassed about it. Nonetheless, I survived those first couple of weeks through God’s gentle comfort and strength and I can’t forget my awesome support team, my family and friends!
The funny thing is, at the beginning of the summer I had prayed that God would show me what it meant to have His joy and by the end of the summer He answered me. I didn’t think that God would answer this prayer in such a heart wrenching way, but He did. Through this uncontrollable circumstance, God was tugging my heart closer to Him and putting a deep desire to truly know and have His joy. Although the relationship with this man ended I can honestly say that I have grown and learned a lot simply from loving and being loved by him for a season of our lives. The beginning of my joy began in the midst of heartbreak, but I believe God had me right where he wanted me, broken.
James 1:2-4 “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
