Two tall, heavy doors loomed before me. Could I really do this? Taking a deep breath, I wrapped my fingers around a handle and pulled. It took only two steps over the threshold to start me on an exhilarating and difficult journey.
Some dreams take longer than others to achieve. God-sized dreams are the ones we think impossible ever to see come true, yet, these dreams are done only in His timing and His help. God takes the impossible and makes it possible. This felt like the right timing.
God-sized dreams are the ones we think impossible ever to see come true, yet, these dreams are done only in His timing and His help. @Marcie_Bridges Click To TweetMy first year of college was at the age of 19 in Florida. When I came back home to North Carolina, I didn’t want to go back to that college. However, I didn’t know where to go. And to further complicate things, I didn’t even know what I wanted to do with my life.
During the next seventeen years, a most wonderful man (we’ve been married now for 23 years) and gave birth to two precious daughters, but I longed for more. I felt like I needed to find my way and I realized I wanted to finish what I had started all those years ago.
You can’t imagine how daunting it was to walk into that first classroom full of twenty-something age kids. Now suddenly, my heart beat thumped in my ears, blood rushed to my face, and I felt like the new girl who just moved in to town once again.
I made it through that first day. I fought my way through 5 semesters of math classes (I failed the first class twice before passing it to go on to the next level class where I failed that class the first time then passed it too). Miraculously I made it through Biology with a C. Four years after walking through those heavy doors for the first time, I walked across a stage to receive my Associates in Arts Degree.
Every time I signed up for classes my heart beat drummed in my ribcage. I was never sure I would finish. There were days I threw my pencil or a book across the living room in anger and frustration because I didn’t understand what I was supposed to be doing or even why I was doing it.
Letting fear keep me from doing it wasn’t an option either. I became determined to achieve this goal. People close to me blatantly told me I would never succeed. They didn’t understand why I was on this journey. But instead of letting their words mock me, I made their voices of discouragement into a mantra of encouragement in my brain.
I decided I would show them I could do this. Even when my own faith faltered, I fled to God and to the verse He had implanted upon my heart.
Commit to the Lord whatever you do,
and he will establish your plans.
Proverbs 16:3
College is hard on anyone but being a forty-year-old college student, married, with children was exhausting. Yet, I continued to persevere through another three years at the university here in town to receive my Bachelor of Arts in English.
Six weeks before graduation I almost quit. No kidding. That was the most difficult semester I had ever been through. Kudos to my best friend as I cried over the phone at all hours of the night about how I couldn’t do it. She even edited term paper after term paper, giving me ideas and helping with research.
In June 2016 once again, with family cheering me on, I walked across the stage to receive my new degree.
Time and again God gave me the strength to get through my classes. He showered me with family and friends who stood by me, cheering me on, keeping me from going under. I started a prayer team and each month I would email them to let them know how I was doing and what I could use prayer for. Over and over I committed my work to the Lord. Over and over He gave me the courage to get up and go to school and finish what He had started in me so many years before.
Do you have a dream you are longing to see fulfilled? Are you stalling, unsure of taking that next step? If so, perhaps it is time to step out in faith and walk through the door to begin your journey.
Marcie Bridges, Guest Poster
Marcie Bridges is a lover of God, people, poetry, and chocolate. She is also a freelance editor as well as the Author Care Representative of Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas. Marcie’s deepest passion is sharing her faith through poetry and is the author of Broken and Spilled Out: an offering of poetry and prayers for the hurting soul. She lives in Western N.C. with her husband, Mark, and two daughters. You can find contact Marcie through her website: www.marciebridges.com or at lmwbridges@gmail.com. You may connect with her on Facebook or Twitter, as well.
About the Book
Are you feeling broken? Needing a place to find rest for your weary, worn out soul? Broken and Spilled Out: An Offering of Poetry and Prayers for the Hurting Soul is a collection of poems Marcie has written chronicling her journey from places of brokenness to healing. You will also find places to rest and pour out your own prayerful thoughts within the pages of this heart stirring book.
Marcie’s book is available here.
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