You are my hiding place! You protect me from trouble and put a song into my heart because you saved me!

Psalms 32:7

My most vivid encounter with God cannot be summed up in a story. I suppose it all started the day I accepted Christ into my heart.

I sat in the sand, pushing the yellow dump truck back and forth, I was three. I had just gotten yelled at for something- who knows what, my parents will contest to the fact that I was a naughty child. I looked up at the tree in my backyard; it was huge! I knew that God was bigger than that tree and He loved me enough to die on the cross for me and my 'naughtiness'- that wasn't something I could go on living without. I asked Jesus to be King of my heart, and thus it began.

From that day forward, my relationship with Christ has been a wonderful example of how He is the perfect shepherd and I am the mindless sheep. Just as He pulls me in and lets me experience His loving, perfect self, and I begin to wander again.

My story is God's undying love and pursuit of my ever-wandering heart. I praise the Lord that He has always sought after me- even when I rejected Him.

Pursuit (pur-SOOT): an effort to secure or attain

And that is how I have encountered Christ most vividly- in His undying attempt to secure and attain my heart.

I have struggled through many obstacles- rejected God so many times; yet He pursued me through all of it.

I struggled with eating disorders. God pursued me. I looked for love in men. God pursued me. I became a hypocrite. God pursued me. I thought I could do it myself. God pursued me. I got comfortable. GODPURSUED ME!

He broke me of all these idols, He pursued me through the darkest hours of my life- 

He set me FREE!

He has broken me in every way possible to make me realize HIS LOVE is all I need.

My most vivid encounter-

watching Him work in my life. Hearing Him whisper into my heart. Knowing He loves me perfectly. And after years of pursuit- Letting Him be King of my heart!