My Story

My name is Aimee, and I am 20 years old. I was born the daughter of a pastor, I had two younger siblings, one brother and one sister. I had accepted Christ at around 4 years old and life seemed to be going pretty well for me. But when I was 16 years old I started to have doubts to whether God was real, and if He was then why would He care about me? These doubts went on for a few months, then that summer I was at Church camp with my youth group and God used something in the sermon on that Tuesday night to prick my heart. I was still unsure about God, so I asked Him. “God, if You’re really there, then would you send a white butterfly to fly in front of my face when I say amen?” As soon as I said amen, a white butterfly flew in front of me and that night I went down to the altar and rededicated my life to Christ. Oh, and the butterfly, I not only saw it that night, but it circled my entire group while we were in tabernacle every morning for the rest of the week! After that I started growing closer and closer to God, until He started telling me something I didn’t want to hear. Ever since I had been 4 years old my dream was to become a veterinarian. And as I got older, I had it all planned out, what college I’d go to, and even the clinic I wanted to work in! But God started to tell me that being a vet was not in His plan for me. I didn’t like that, so I tried to ignore it. I tried to ignore it for two years… I could not hear God anymore; I didn’t spend any time with Him, because when I did He convicted my heart about being a vet. Finally when I was 18 everything changed. Two weeks before my high-school graduation, my father called my siblings and I into our parent’s room, we then found out that my mother wanted to leave… I will never forget that night, there was so much yelling and crying, and my mother just sat there indifferent. We found out later that she had been having an affair with an old boyfriend from high-school. It broke my dad’s heart. He had loved her with all his heart for 24 years. My mother left a few weeks after I graduated in 2007, the divorce tore my family apart, but one of the good things that came out of it was that my father, siblings, and I began to grow much closer to God. My brother had a complete change; you know how they say boys get their self-esteem from their mother? Well my mother was never really affectionate to any of us, and in fact would tease us and ridicule us about weight, or any of our interests that she did not like. So my brother had always been very shy and never talked to anyone he didn’t know. But God started working in him, and brought him out of his shell, and now he is one of the most outgoing guys in our youth group and I know he is going to do great work for God. During the summer of ’07 I grew closer and closer to God, I was closer than I had ever been to Him. But still, that fall when I started college, I was still majoring in veterinary medicine, even taking biology classes for majors. But two months into the semester God was working on my heart again about being a vet not being in His plans. My family cleans our church building, and one day I was sweeping in one of the preschool rooms, and a song came on my iPod that I had avoided like the plague for two years. The song was “Surrender” by BarlowGirl, and it talks about giving up our dreams, and taking up what God has planned for us. I don’t know why I let it play, but I listened to it and just broke down bawling. I finally turned my dreams over to God. I told Him “Ok, I’ll do whatever You want me to do.” And He started to reveal to me that He wanted me to have a career in the field of psychology. At first I just figured that I would be counseling in a clinic, but now God has revealed four possible paths to me, and He hasn’t said no to any of them yet! I am really starting to believe that I will be doing all four! They include, counseling, working with girls who have eating disorders, traveling around the nation speaking to girls about how God views them and how they don’t have to give in to our culture’s idea of beauty to have worth, and the biggest of these, and also one of the ones I am the most excited about… Owning and running a Christian based girls home. So even though some bad things have happened to me, I can see where God has brought the good out of it. And I thank Him for it every day.
~Aimee