- Nov 12, 2012
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Hi, my name is Ashleigh. I just wanted to share my testimony, although it certainly isn't complete. I grew up in church, my dad has pastored
churches, and I grew up with him being one of the associate pastors at our church. When I was younger the church wasn't as charismatic as it had been when my mom first went there, but it certainly was to some degree. I grew up going to church at least three times a week, and I got saved before I was three. When I was almost eight, my dad had a stroke and the church moved, making it really hard to be involved. I wouldn't say that I really wasn't walking with the Lord, but my relationship with Him had certainly seen better days. Finally after about three years of this, after the church moved, driving forty minutes was too much and we started going to a Baptist church about five minutes away. I really started getting in the Word there, and at this point it wasn't much different than our old church and the kids in the youth group were nice to me. But then I found myself really needing to get some good faith teaching. I am 14 now, and this has happened over the last six months.
So I had always wanted to be in God's will, but I loved sports and wanted to be a professional athlete (skier, snowboarder, gymnast, Nascar driver,
etc.). But I always tried to make my will His. Finally, I don't know exactly what made me do it then, but I was sitting in the Kenneth Copeland Word
Explosion the first night when I decided that was time for me to totally turn everything over to God. I just started praying for Him to reveal His will to me. What I got was totally unexpected to say the least. But the truth was I can't really say that I even was totally conscious of the decision I was making that night. I started out with praying about college. I basically prayed that it was narrowed down to Harvard or USC, or do undergraduate at USC and law school at Harvard. But as I found out, what I was basically doing was giving God a multiple choice question about what I liked (based on the prestige of Harvard and my love for the Gamecocks). But as I also found out, God had bigger plans than anything I ever would have dreamed of. I have always really loved America, that is something that no one would or could have ever doubted. I have always been the kind of girl to where patriotic t-shirts, and to never forget to pin on that American flag when I was wearing a business suit, as in to a campaign event. I put in literally 100+ hours between October 13th and November 6th. I have always wanted to make America even better, although I always have believed she is the best country in the world. And I have always really supported our military, but I also I always took my other's opinion about women in the military, and why she supported them, but didn't agree with the concept.
The night before the first meeting, I had begun to question what people had said, when the subject came up. Little did I know, but God was preparing my heart for what He was going to show me less than 24 hours later. As I sat there and prayed, that night, I don't even know just how
conscious I was of how much I was giving things over to Him, but I knew that I wanted to be in His will, and that was when he showed me what I
was supposed to do. I didn't know much about the Army that night, just that as I prayed that was where I felt so drawn, even though that night the
thought was scary to me. I went home that night and stayed up a long while researching, and just praying and listening to God, and knowing that I would be safer in His will, no matter what it was, than out of it. I began to order books from the library that night, about the Army and Basic
Training. But as I continued to listen to Him, I felt pulled towards something else, not just enlisting, but looking into West Point. Within a couple of days I went from saying I could never do it, to never having wanted anything more. And as I began to learn more, and work harder at following His will, it came to the place where it was all I wanted. All of the things that I had wanted before, the things that I had been pursuing, seemed fun, but still trivial, in the light of God's plan for my life.
And then came the next problem. I work in the library, so I was able to get the books without my mom finding out. But I knew that she had to
know sometime, and that scared me. I didn't know how to tell her, and I knew that she would worry and disagree. So it was the Sunday before
Thanksgiving that I finally told, and that was after our youth leader's wife mentioned to me that I needed to tell my mom, since I had been checking
books out, and it would be bad if she found out some other way. My mom had seen the Army books, but I had simply said that I was using them
for government trying to learn a little bit more. But I was honestly scared to tell her. I knew that I would follow this, no matter what, and that my
parents would accept it in time, but I just didn't know how to explain it. When I told her, I hate to say that I had spent a couple of days hinting
about colleges with uniforms, I was so nervous. She didn't know anything about USMA, so she called me back in the room to have me tell her about it. A couple of weeks later I finally told her that military college meant military commitment after college. I know that it was pretty unexpected, but she handled it a lot better than I expected. For a while she didn't really talk about it much and persisted in how far off it was, but now she is pretty much good with it and everything is coming together. You have to have a team and individual sport, I love sports. You have to do either JROTC or CAP, and the CAP meetings are less than five miles away. I have a lot of good recommendations from volunteer work (which is something else that they really like), and I have always been really involved at church which is something that they also really encourage. Everything is really working out already, and I can already see the way everything He has given me connecting with this. I am having to work really hard on school, because of the grade requirements being so much higher than anywhere else that I had thought of, but even that is coming together. For one thing, because I am home-schooled, there is no way to do class rank. Well, that percentage will be added to the SAT, and test taking is one of the things that I am better at. The other things they calculate are GPA, leadership skills (through JROTC/CAP), and sports. For me, it is going to be Cross Country, and probably Civil Air Patrol.
So finally, after a very long wait, I got the call from the Field Force Representative, Monday a week ago. It was pretty exciting for me, and she is very helpful, and ended up talking to me for 40 minutes. She is working on finding the answers to some questions I asked, so back to waiting for the phone call. It is pretty cool, and even though there are some definite obstacles, I am really learning to trust Him.
I really can't believe that I am sitting here writing this, but I just wanted to share my testimony of how He has worked in my life and shown me His
will.
I would love to hear any thoughts you have, so please let me know. I thought that this would be the best section to post this in. As I said it is so hard to believe this, but here I am, telling this.
In Christ,
Ashleigh
USMA Cadet Candidate c/o 2020
churches, and I grew up with him being one of the associate pastors at our church. When I was younger the church wasn't as charismatic as it had been when my mom first went there, but it certainly was to some degree. I grew up going to church at least three times a week, and I got saved before I was three. When I was almost eight, my dad had a stroke and the church moved, making it really hard to be involved. I wouldn't say that I really wasn't walking with the Lord, but my relationship with Him had certainly seen better days. Finally after about three years of this, after the church moved, driving forty minutes was too much and we started going to a Baptist church about five minutes away. I really started getting in the Word there, and at this point it wasn't much different than our old church and the kids in the youth group were nice to me. But then I found myself really needing to get some good faith teaching. I am 14 now, and this has happened over the last six months.
So I had always wanted to be in God's will, but I loved sports and wanted to be a professional athlete (skier, snowboarder, gymnast, Nascar driver,
etc.). But I always tried to make my will His. Finally, I don't know exactly what made me do it then, but I was sitting in the Kenneth Copeland Word
Explosion the first night when I decided that was time for me to totally turn everything over to God. I just started praying for Him to reveal His will to me. What I got was totally unexpected to say the least. But the truth was I can't really say that I even was totally conscious of the decision I was making that night. I started out with praying about college. I basically prayed that it was narrowed down to Harvard or USC, or do undergraduate at USC and law school at Harvard. But as I found out, what I was basically doing was giving God a multiple choice question about what I liked (based on the prestige of Harvard and my love for the Gamecocks). But as I also found out, God had bigger plans than anything I ever would have dreamed of. I have always really loved America, that is something that no one would or could have ever doubted. I have always been the kind of girl to where patriotic t-shirts, and to never forget to pin on that American flag when I was wearing a business suit, as in to a campaign event. I put in literally 100+ hours between October 13th and November 6th. I have always wanted to make America even better, although I always have believed she is the best country in the world. And I have always really supported our military, but I also I always took my other's opinion about women in the military, and why she supported them, but didn't agree with the concept.
The night before the first meeting, I had begun to question what people had said, when the subject came up. Little did I know, but God was preparing my heart for what He was going to show me less than 24 hours later. As I sat there and prayed, that night, I don't even know just how
conscious I was of how much I was giving things over to Him, but I knew that I wanted to be in His will, and that was when he showed me what I
was supposed to do. I didn't know much about the Army that night, just that as I prayed that was where I felt so drawn, even though that night the
thought was scary to me. I went home that night and stayed up a long while researching, and just praying and listening to God, and knowing that I would be safer in His will, no matter what it was, than out of it. I began to order books from the library that night, about the Army and Basic
Training. But as I continued to listen to Him, I felt pulled towards something else, not just enlisting, but looking into West Point. Within a couple of days I went from saying I could never do it, to never having wanted anything more. And as I began to learn more, and work harder at following His will, it came to the place where it was all I wanted. All of the things that I had wanted before, the things that I had been pursuing, seemed fun, but still trivial, in the light of God's plan for my life.
And then came the next problem. I work in the library, so I was able to get the books without my mom finding out. But I knew that she had to
know sometime, and that scared me. I didn't know how to tell her, and I knew that she would worry and disagree. So it was the Sunday before
Thanksgiving that I finally told, and that was after our youth leader's wife mentioned to me that I needed to tell my mom, since I had been checking
books out, and it would be bad if she found out some other way. My mom had seen the Army books, but I had simply said that I was using them
for government trying to learn a little bit more. But I was honestly scared to tell her. I knew that I would follow this, no matter what, and that my
parents would accept it in time, but I just didn't know how to explain it. When I told her, I hate to say that I had spent a couple of days hinting
about colleges with uniforms, I was so nervous. She didn't know anything about USMA, so she called me back in the room to have me tell her about it. A couple of weeks later I finally told her that military college meant military commitment after college. I know that it was pretty unexpected, but she handled it a lot better than I expected. For a while she didn't really talk about it much and persisted in how far off it was, but now she is pretty much good with it and everything is coming together. You have to have a team and individual sport, I love sports. You have to do either JROTC or CAP, and the CAP meetings are less than five miles away. I have a lot of good recommendations from volunteer work (which is something else that they really like), and I have always been really involved at church which is something that they also really encourage. Everything is really working out already, and I can already see the way everything He has given me connecting with this. I am having to work really hard on school, because of the grade requirements being so much higher than anywhere else that I had thought of, but even that is coming together. For one thing, because I am home-schooled, there is no way to do class rank. Well, that percentage will be added to the SAT, and test taking is one of the things that I am better at. The other things they calculate are GPA, leadership skills (through JROTC/CAP), and sports. For me, it is going to be Cross Country, and probably Civil Air Patrol.
So finally, after a very long wait, I got the call from the Field Force Representative, Monday a week ago. It was pretty exciting for me, and she is very helpful, and ended up talking to me for 40 minutes. She is working on finding the answers to some questions I asked, so back to waiting for the phone call. It is pretty cool, and even though there are some definite obstacles, I am really learning to trust Him.
I really can't believe that I am sitting here writing this, but I just wanted to share my testimony of how He has worked in my life and shown me His
will.
I would love to hear any thoughts you have, so please let me know. I thought that this would be the best section to post this in. As I said it is so hard to believe this, but here I am, telling this.
In Christ,
Ashleigh
USMA Cadet Candidate c/o 2020
