30til30: day 17, barb h.

i have 30 days until i celebrate my 30th year of life. i thought i would share with you 30 people, events and situations that have shaped my life and who i want to be. it has been very challenging to come up with 30…i hope it inspires you as it has me. this part of the list is in no particular order.

day 17: barb h.

i was 16 when we started attending grace church. it had been a rough couple years for me, as far as looking for a place to belong and figuring out my relationship with my parents. i had been burned by christians and needed to see genuine love within the church. and, as i wrote about earlier, i found that at grace evangelical church.

part of the change for me was being completely accepted by my peers, friends who didn’t focus on outward appearances and material possessions. it was refreshing and life-changing.

the other, perhaps more vital, part of the change for me was having adults aside from my parents strongly involved in my life. barb was one of those women who deeply impacted me.

i remember singing in the “choir” with barb. she encouraged me as i first learned to cultivate my relationship with Christ. she and her husband ken were the first adults to challenge me to memorize scripture as a teenager. and, she helped me work through a lot of the difficulties i thought i faced at home.

i still remember one of those conversations. actually, i don’t remember what we discussed, but i clearly remember barb taking time to sit on the steps outside with me after the church service and talk through my teenage angst. whatever she said, i left with a better grasp of how to honor and respect my parents – an area where i still had a lot of room to grow.

the grace evangelical church family played a huge role in bringing me up in the Lord. as she casually discipled and mentored me, God allowed barb to play a large role in my growth as a young follower of Christ.