A Testimony of 2016

Join me as I share my testimony of 2016. It was a wild ride, but God was working in huge ways!

So 2016 is now done, and I’m honestly pretty happy. While this year will go down as one of the hardest years I’ve had, it will also go down as one of the best. My testimony of 2016 is pretty crazy – and I wish that I had enough room in this post to share it with you all!

On January 1st, 2016, at 12:01 am, I was praying. I stayed up all night that night not because I was at a party, or anything like that, but because I wanted to start of the year well. I had heard many people tell me that asking God I wanted to learn more was a dangerous prayer, but I was willing to take my chances. After all, this was God! It was going to be hard, but I knew eventually it was going to be AMAZING. And that’s exactly what happened.

I started this blog in May, after an eventful track season full of hardships and victories. During that summer, I fought a lot of depression as I struggled with why I ran, why I did this blog, why I did anything at all. Who was I doing it for? I finally accepted in my heart what my head already knew- I wanted to run, I wanted to write, I wanted to sing… for God. Not for myself. While this discovery seems quite small, it was actually huge. I had always known it, but now God had led me through that journey that helped me discover who I was in him. In fact, he is STILL leading me through this journey!

So when Cross Country started, I thought to myself: Okay. I’m not sure how this season is going to go. But I want to grow more in Christ through it, and I want to encourage others as much as I can.

I got so frustrated when things weren’t going so well at the beginning. My times weren’t as fast as I’d want them, and I was struggling to encourage my friends who were hurting as well. I found it was hard to manage both trying to encourage others and also trying to uplift myself at the same time.

At the very end of the season, before our last meet, a friend and I spent a long time out on the course we were preparing to race on that next day. We were both going through lots of things at that time- her running times were even more frustrating than mine were. But we both decided, instead of worrying about that next day, to pray out loud to God and thank him for all he had done. And because of that, we had so much joy even in the midst of our struggle!

For me, those few minutes of prayer were probably the best out of the whole year. It showed me that no matter what we go through, God is always with us and deserves our praise! I think back to that day and realize how much God helped us, through that season, to become strong enough to praise him even in the hard times. That strength only comes from him! This is my testimony of 2016, and while it was a hard lesson to learn, it was all for good.

Now that it’s 2017, I am excited to see what God will bring next. It’s scary, honestly, but I know that my story is just beginning, and the Author is planning something huge.