So, this one will be rather long, cause i am going to take the time to spill the basics of my life story up until now.I was born in Oregon. Where i don't know. For the longest time i though i was born in Portland but recently was told different. Anyway! I don't remember much until i was about six or seven. My first memories involve my dad, my step mom, and my my younger brother Tyler. I remember when our youngest brother Camron was born. And i remember when dad picked up with my brothers and left for Pittsburgh. My parents split up when i was two(or something like that), so i don't remember them ever being together. Though sometime i have wondered if things would have been easier had they been together, i understand walking into my house with them together, would be like walking into a war zone, in freezing temperatures, with no clothes on. Plus i wouldn't have Tyler. Or Camron. I remember when Tyler's mother and my dad split. Honestly it wasn't horrible for me as i always did feel like i was treated as the step child. Delena did do some good things for me, but the feeling of being treated as the step child will always overpower everything else. Now that's not to bash on her at all. She has done some amazing things for my brothers and has been an amazing mom to them. I know this because i know there is no way that Tyler got all of his amazing qualities from our dad alone. And that's not to bash on our dad either. He is and has been the best dad i could ask for, and a someone i look up to in so many ways. Not much makes me happier then when he says he is proud of me. But like everyone he has his flaws. And so does my mother. But her flaws dont compare anywhere near how amazing she has been. I thank her for every ounce of effort she has every put into my life. They say you can never get parenting right. But i am a strong believer in the quote "your imperfections are what make you perfect." And to me, that my parents are. Perfect. Perfect in their imperfections, and perfect in their...perfections. Perfect in all the times they may have messed up, and perfect in the many times they got it right. I don't thank god enough for giving me the parents i have been blessed with.
MOVING ON. ;p
So in middle school i moved in with my mom as my dad left for Pittsburgh. Just across the river from Oregon to Washington. There were a lot of hard times as i had to learn the differences between my mother and my father. And my lack of self confidence didn't help my life in the least. I went through middle school and most of high school with maybe 2 or 3 friends. I was the quiet kid. I was the kid that came into the school after everyone had already found their group, and found who they were friends with. And i was too shy, to scared, to put myself out there. It wasn't until about junior year of high school that i established myself in a small group of friends. I don't remember how it came together but i got to be friends with Brad, and Blake. Now, let me start this off by saying, i had always grown up in a christian family, with everybody most of the time pointing to god. I grew up in that, but yet i was really just the Sunday christian, well, more like the every other Sunday christian. When i started getting to know these guys i knew, these were NOT the kind of guys i should be hanging out with. Now without going into detail, lets just say, that i look back and i say to myself, did we really talk about those things, did we really do those things, did we really encourage each other to do those things, did we really treat people that way, did we really take part in those stupid activities? I never skipped a day of school in my life, and then i might Brad and Blake, and all of that changed. Now, its not their fault....entirely. I had free will and i was more then happy to chose to break out of my boring life and actually live a little. I stayed away from some of the stuff they choose to partake in, but still valued just having the friendship a whole lot.
The end of my senior year of high school i started dating my first girlfriend. I went to college and we broke up. College was a difficult time for me. (as I'm sure it is many). I moved away from my family to phoenix, i hated every second of it, i had no positive influences in my life, and i let myself go. I started drinking, i started partying, i started doing a lot of things i regret. I could go on and on about stories, about how i jumped on a moving train, about how much alcohol i went through in a night, about how i woke up one morning in a car at an asu parking lot, whose car it was i didn't know and never found out, and how i got from phoenix to Tempe i had no idea either. I could go on and on about the stories. I spent a year of my two years in college doing stupid things. And somehow by gods grace, i managed a 3.9 GPA. It wasn't until the last 6 months of college i realized i needed to not be an idiot. And that's when i got my first taste of gods amazingness. I opened my bible that my uncle had given me years ago, and read the verse he wrote in it for me. Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." I later got this verse tattooed on my arm. It got me through the hardest parts and it gave me a little hope, though i was not to educated in what i was hoping in.
At the end of college i started dating my second girlfriend. I moved back home and attempted the long distance thing. It was long before i had even met her that i decided i didn't want to stay at home when i got done with college. So after being home for 4 months i decided it was time to move again. I thought about my choices and Tempe was not a hard thing to figure out. My girlfriend was going to be there. I knew the city like the back of my hand. I LOOOOVED the weather. But most of all, i felt i was being drawn there. I felt something was calling me there more then all of that. What it was i didn't know. I told my family it was god, but that was a cop-out. I didn't really know that, all i knew was i felt like i needed to go. What i didn't know, was how much god had in store for me.
So 4 months after moving home i packed up one day and left for Tempe. When i left, i didn't have an apartment to stay in, i didn't have a job, i didn't have any furniture. I had what i could fit in the back of my little Chevy cobalt and about $1000 to my name. I left for Tempe on a whim, surprising my job the day before i left. When i got down there God put together the puzzle perfectly. I got an apartment right away, and i had a job(a good job, in my field) no more then a week later. I spent most of my time with my girlfriend and her roommates, doin asu stuff, and playin video games. I wasted a lot of time.
At that time (about 8 months later) my best friend brad decided he wanted to move down with me. He was supposed to move down when i first left but he chickened out ;p. So he moved down and we stayed in my studio apartment for a little more then a month. Around that time my relationship hit some rocks and i called it quits. We stayed friends and it was right during that time we were breaking up that she came to me and said "I met this girl heather today and she started talking to me about my religion and stuff, and she invited me to go play Frisbee with them, i have to work, but you guys should go!". I remember passing by ASU for the first nine months and making fun of all the people playing Frisbee. I remember thinking how real men would play football and little scared girly men would play Frisbee. Yet something gave me the urge to want to go.
After talking to heather on the phone i went to Frisbee under one condition. That she would hold up a big sign that said my name on it so i knew who to look for. It was that night that my life really started. From the moment i walked onto the Frisbee field i knew why i had come to Tempe. I shook hands with three guys, Ryan Buss, Tim Bates, and Josh Marsh. All of which came right up to me and shook my hand and introduced themselves. All of which immediately told me that they do bible study type thing Friday nights at 7:00. As i listened and watched and played and talked with these three guys throughout the night and next couple weeks. I found that i had some sort of connection with them, and it wasn't immediately a friendship connection, or even a we have stuff in common connection. It was the second night of Frisbee that a realized what it was. These guys were all the kind of Men of God that i had always wanted to be. The kind of guys that i had always wanted to change my life and my ways to be like, but never found the strength or encouragement. Well just being around them. Just seeing them interact, just seeing them be them, i found all the encouragement i could handle.
And that's when i started getting into being a part of Navs. And that's when i started getting into the bible. And that's when i started getting into God. And that's when my life started to change.
And here i am now. For all who have known me close, you know that brad and i have come very very far. And we don't even resemble the stupid kids we were in high school. Now, i still have a long way to go. And i look up to those three guys, and a few others still. I still make many many mistakes. I still stumble and fall more then i could imagine. But being around the guys i mentioned, and some others in the navs, is such a huge push for me to become more like them. And that is why i believe i am here. I believe god brought me here, to show me the navs, and to show me the nav men, and to glorify himself to me, through them. And i am so very thankful.
I recently went through a relationship with a girl i find amazing. It ended rough. And i am still hurting from that. I still think about her everyday. I still cant listen to many songs that sing anything about relationship. I still swell up when i hear Toby mac - you never know what you got till its gone. I still have dreams. I still am worried everyday. But i am thankful for the friends that i have. Because they have helped show me that i can be happy while i am completely sad. They have shown me that i can smile when all i still feel like doing is screaming and crying. Brad and Tyler are two guys that i look up too. Brad and Tyler are two of the rocks i have in my life. They are there and the are solid. They are amazing. And i thank you both for everything in you guys do in my life. I look up to you both as people, as Christians, and as brothers. You guys are so far beyond me and i am so thankful to be able to look up to you as role models.
God is amazing. God has shown me that i can be happy in my suffering. Reading Acts and Romans i have been shown that is good to be happy when you are suffering. And i am so very thankful that god is building my character, even though it hurts so much sometimes. God is amazing, and if you don't know him, you should get to know him, because he will work miracles in your life.
Randall's lyrics of the day:
There's a song outside my window And it plays to your tune And there's a life inside this pencil And it lives for what is true Cause I am lost for words, the cost for her Was way to much to bear You're not perfect, but I don't care This is the way that I know This is the way that I know I would give everything for some hopeRandall's verse of the day :
Romans 5:3-5 "
3And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; 4and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; 5and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us."
