boyfriend – a thousand new paths

Do you know someone with certain personality traits that never cease to leave you shocked and amazed? I am continuously amazed by the way my sweet boyfriend, Cason, uses his social skills to bless and give to others. Let me share a story with you.

A few weeks ago Cason decided to sell his TV on Craigslist. Not a new phenomenon. People sell stuff on Craigslist all the time. Well after a series of texts and calls from random people, Cason finally has someone who wants to meet up to see the TV and potentially make a purchase. He asks me if I want to tag along, which of course I do, so we set off for the local Starbucks and grab some drinks while we wait. Soon enough a newly-married military couple approaches, and Cason starts up a conversation with them. Me, I would immediately start talking about the TV and get down to business; that’s just the way my brain works. Cason, no, he starts by asking them about their background: Are you military? Where are you from? Are you new to the area? (Duh, seriously why can’t I ever think of the right questions to ask in social situations?)
Anyway, they head off to Cason’s car to check out the TV while I sit sipping my still-hot latte. Cason returns quite some time later with a huge grin on his face, which I immediately interpret to mean that he sold the TV. However, the first thing out of his mouth was something like, “They are a really cool couple.” (By now I shouldn’t be surprised that Cason always puts relationships with people above business. It’s something I truly admire about him.) Then he goes on to tell me about how the couple was looking for a good church in the area and had visited one. Cason, being the social networker that he is, knew people at the church and recommended people they could get plugged in with. Finally he tells me basically that he loves to sell things on Craigslist because it gives him opportunities to meet people like that. Gee, isn’t that an awesome perspective to have on what many, including myself, would typically view as nothing more than a means to a quick & profitable business transaction.
You would think the story ends here, but there’s more. We saw this sweet, young couple last weekend at church and made plans to grab some dinner this past week. We ended up going to a Mexican restaurant in town, which worked out because apparently they had been looking for a good Mexican place since they moved. We found out that they are about the same age as us, about a year younger than both of us. We had genuinely good conversations and I enjoyed getting to know them. Let me just say that meeting and getting to know new people is not my strong suit, so I was very thankful to have Cason by my side to ask the right questions and keep the conversation rolling when I was certain that an awkward silence was about to strike. Come to find out, the husband is here for training this year, but he will be stationed in Texas only 30 minutes from Baylor next year. I know that there’s no way to tell what direction this newfound friendship will take, but I think it’s amazing that God would have us meet through Craigslist and be sending us to similar places at similar times.

Not only did Cason’s social skills and love of people bless another couple as well as myself this week, but it also got me to thinking about the way we view business transactions and business as a whole in this country. I was thinking that perhaps if business was less focused on the almighty dollar and more focused on the people behind the cash, then maybe we would find ourselves living in a place filled with more blessings. Perhaps this is idealistic, but I just can’t help but think that our businesses should be more about providing quality services and goods with excellent customer service as opposed as simply a way to make more and more money. Certainly this attitude of service partnered with business gave birth to social entrepreneurship, which is something I could definitely get on board with. Just food for thought.

In closing, I just wanted to say again how thankful and blessed I am to have a wonderful boyfriend who truly sees the value of meaningful relationships. I am thankful that God has blessed Cason with this uncanny ability to have a genuine conversation with everyone he meets.

Tears are funny things, aren’t they? We all cry for a variety of reasons, but never in my life have I cried so many tears of joy in one week. Over the past year I have cried…a LOT. I was struggling to get over past relationships, battling depression, and oftentimes just trying to make it through to the next day. So I’m very familiar with tears of sadness. However, it has been a while since I cried from pure joy. As a matter of fact, I believe it has been quite a while since I actually experienced pure joy. I’m sure that was a contributing factor to the tears that accompanied the joy that I experienced this week.

I’d like to go into some detail about each event that triggered a waterfall of joyful tears this week, but I’ll start by listing the three occurrences:

Becca’s wedding on Saturday
A new relationship that God has blessed me with
Good news about graduate school

On Saturday my friend, Becca, got married to an amazing Christian guy, and I cried from the moment I saw her start to walk down the aisle and pretty much throughout the wedding ceremony. Becca and I have been in an S-group together since my sophomore year in college. S-groups were implemented at Mercer RUF shortly after I started attending, and they are intended to be “sanctification groups” or accountability groups. S-group was a place where the five of us sophomore girls could share our lives together and be led by an older RUF student. We read scripture, prayed together, and shared the happenings of our lives with each other. I don’t think I realized how much my S-group really impacted my life at college until I left, and I certainly did not realize how closely I had bonded with these women until I practically cried through all of Becca’s wedding. I had experienced the ups and downs of her life through her recollections during each of our weekly meetings, and I have always been encouraged by her unwavering faith in Christ even through the toughest and most unimaginable moments in life. It was no surprise to me that God blessed her with a man rooted in the Word and ready and willing to love Becca as Christ loves the Church. Becca & Phil’s wedding exemplified all that a Christian wedding should stand for; it was a beautiful public profession of their commitment to one another in Christ…and it made me cry tears of joy. Even reflecting on this beautiful union or trying to communicate it to others brought tears to my eyes. So that was my first joyful cry of the week.
Then on Thursday I had a date with
Cason, my now-boyfriend. We have been dating for about a month now, but it seems like I have known him forever. We met back in high school through a program called Teen Advisors (TAs). He was homeschooled, but he came to my high school for TA sessions. We knew each other, and we had plenty of mutual friends, but we weren’t close at the time. I started going to a young adult ministry called The Door when I was at home from college on Christmas and summer breaks, and we reconnected through that. Over a week ago we went on a picnic in the park, and he asked me to be his girlfriend. I was more than ready and willing to enter into an exclusive relationship, but I was hesitant about one thing: Facebook. Cason had already met my parents when he picked me up for our first date, and I thought it only right and respectful to grant his parents the same courtesy before publicly broadcasting our relationship to the world. (We’re getting closer to the point, don’t worry!)

So, Thursday evening I went on a date with Cason to meet his parents, and I was very encouraged by the experience. It allowed me to learn more about how Cason and his family relate, and it was evident that he comes from a family that cares deeply about God and one another. I was so thankful for the opportunity to meet such Godly parents who lovingly raised such a respectful, “faithful,” Christ-centered young man. While sitting on the couch with Cason on Thursday night talking over the evening, I was overwhelmed by all of these thoughts….and it made me cry tears of joy. How embarrassing to sit on a couch in front of your boyfriend of a month and overflow with joyful tears, but he completely understood, which made me feel that much more thankful and blessed to have him in my life. Two months ago if you asked me where I thought I would be, I never would have said, “In a relationship,” but it has been my experience that God always has better plans than I could imagine. For that I am eternally thankful.
Finally, on Friday I received an unofficial email from Baylor expressing their “SIGNIFICANT interest” in me attending their School Psychology grad program. WHAT?!?! WAIT, ME!?!? I re-read the email at least five times…and it made me cry tears of joy. Throughout this whole graduate school application process I have continually reminded myself not to get my hopes up, obviously for no good reason. I think I built such a wall that I did not allow myself to believe that my dreams and risks would actually see positive results. Even when I received the email, I found myself thinking, “This is too good to be true,” and I had to quickly remind myself that I love and serve a God who is ever faithful. I’m constantly reminded that he brought me to the specific profession of school psychology for a reason, and it is even more clear to me now that school psychology is where I am supposed to be, as God continues to remove barriers on my path to becoming a school psychologist. He has put my mind at ease so many times over the course of this application process and constantly reminded me that my future is not really mine at all, but His. I am so eager to continue on this path to becoming a school psychologist via this new avenue of grad school.

I am truly overwhelmed with all of the blessings that God has placed in my life, especially now that I have enough perspective to look back and realize that He’s had his hand over all of these events in my life even before I could have imagined they were possibilities for me. Even during this last year when I had practically given up on so many things in my life and at times wondered what God was doing, He was working in my life to bring fulfillment and thus bring even more glory to His name. I am beyond blessed and overwhelmed with joy and forever thankful to eternally serve a God who is always faithful.