Every once in a while, if we’re lucky enough, we will receive an idea or experience a moment that will change the course of our lives forever. These ideas or moments often occur when we’re at our lowest, when it seems as though the whole world were against us. I was fortunate enough to have one of these moments almost 10 years ago when my whole world turned upside down.
My dad was called to the ministry in the early 2000s, and he left the financial security of the family business to pursue God’s plan for his life and ours. While money was tight, God provided for us, and, considering that I was around 8 or 9 years old at the time, things weren’t all that different for me.
I accepted Christ in early March of 2002, and I was later baptized on St. Patrick’s Day. I was 6 years old at the time, so even though I was definitely old enough to comprehend the decision I was making, I didn’t really understand the gravity of what that decision would do to me. I was coasting through life.
My dad’s ministry wasn’t something I really understood at the time. I didn’t know what was going on between the Lord and him. I didn’t know what God was telling my dad to do.
It wasn’t until around Christmas time in 2005 that my dad gathered us all around the dining room table to share some shocking news: we were moving to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
I didn’t really know what to think. Here I was, a 10 year-old-girl with her whole life in Arkansas. All of my friends and family were here. I hadn’t even heard of Myrtle Beach, let alone thought about it as a nice place to live. It was as though I were watching this all unfold from the sidelines, a mere spectator, looking at someone else’s family.
Naturally, my siblings and I weren’t happy with being uprooted. Neither were my parents, initially, but they knew that this was something that the Lord wanted them to do. God was leading us down an unknown path, and I didn’t know what to expect.
He sold our house and moved in the summer of 2006, right around the time of our eleventh birthday. Easily one of the worst birthdays of my life. Despite the fact that I had my own room for the first time (when I had been sharing a large room with my sisters in my old house), I would’ve given anything to go back. I hated Myrtle Beach.
I didn’t know why God was doing this to me. Why would he take me away from everything that I knew and loved? Why would he put me in this strange place where everything was covered in sand and all the people were from the Northeast? Why would he take me away from my friends and family? Why would God, my heavenly Father, hurt me this way?
I questioned him for the longest time. I was angry at him. I was angry at my parents. All in all, I was just angry.
School started, and my siblings and I clung to one another, not knowing a soul in the entire building. We soon made friends, but wow was it hard at first. Making friends is not an easy task for me, and despite the fact that I did make some eventually, I felt incredibly alone.
I would often shut myself in my room and weep. I was homesick. Here I was, alone, surrounded by nameless, faceless people. Because of the Lord, I was stuck in this forsaken place called Myrtle Beach, and I was left alone to fend for myself.
It was then that I realized that I was never alone; the Lord had been with me the entire time.
This was the moment that I look back to as the pivotal moment in my walk with the Lord. It was at this moment that I realized that I had to put my complete faith in him, and once I did, everything changed.
I started having a daily quiet time. I started listening to Christian music instead of the mindless tween music of the mid-2000s. I began to have a true relationship with the Lord, and it blew my mind. I had never realized how wonderful the Lord was, and I felt like I had missed out the entire time. The Lord gave me good friends, and I was finally happy. While my relationship with the Lord often makes life harder to live, it makes it worth living, and I have Myrtle Beach to thank for it.
Although I moved back to Little Rock two years later in 2008, those were easily two of the most pivotal years of my life. I would not be the person I am today if it weren’t for those years. I thank God every day for the experiences he gives me, even if they are challenging. Life would be boring without a challenge anyway. All that is to say, you never know what moments will turn your world upside down, but welcome them when they come.
– Katherine Carter, Ed/OP Ed Editor
