Nothing is impossible with God!

Okay, I'm sitting here at a Panera Bread on a snow day. School is cancelled and as a teacher I have the luxury of not having to go to work! Strangely, my text messaging has been on the higher side today and I ran across an interesting, but brief conversation with a friend of mine. She asked me if I have given much thought about golf?

Now, before I go into this...for those of you who do not know, golf has been a HUGE part of most of my life. I started playing when I was 5 years old and earned my way throughout college on a golf scholarship. God has been an amazing blessing to me with this talent. During my younger years, I had aspirations of being the first deaf professional golfer on the LPGA Tour.

So, what happened to my golfing days? Believe me, I have asked God about that countless of times. My response to my friend is that I've finally stopped asking God because the answer is clear. It is finished. That is not where God wants me to be at this moment of my life. I have asked God to teach me and mold me to be more and more like Jesus Christ. The utmost importance for me is the development of my character and the continuous fire for my love of Christ.

Did I waste all those years in my golfing profession growing up? Absolutely not! I recall many memories that God has taught me during my golfing days (although I didn't really realize it at the time, but it's becoming evident to me now). I'm looking outside of the window right now and smiling because I can vividly remember those days. I would like to share a moment of time that God has taught me about honesty.

On a certain day in October 1996, I was walking up on the 18th green somber and discouraged. Many things were running through my mind. "Jeez, I've screwed it up! All those hard work, down the drain! I guess I won't get that three peat now." Many other thoughts came across my mind. I have probably played the worse golf of my life on the worse day to do it...the state championships. I hadn't even finished the round yet. As I arrived to my ball, I studied the green and decided what to do. I took out my Cleveland sand wedge and took a couple of practice shots. I approached my ball and set the club down. Next, I took a back swing....wham....and then something bad happened. I double chipped. This means that I had already hit the ball, but as I was following through somehow the club hit the ball again. Now, the rules state that every contact counts as a stroke. "Shoot!" I said to myself. I looked up and to my amazement, nobody noticed. As my group finished the hole, my scorekeeper asked me if I had a 6 on that hole. It literally took me 5 seconds to answer that question. Finally, I decided to go with my instincts and tell the truth. "No," I said. "I had a 7 on this hole; I double chipped back there." The girl looked up to me in amazement and said, "Are you sure?" "Yes," I said. Next, I went up to my parents and they knew how I was feeling and hugged me. My dad thought I shot a certain score, but I told him what had happened. The look I saw on my dad's face caught me off guard. He smiled and simply said, "God noticed your honesty and will reward you for it." At that moment, I had mixed emotions and I was really ticked off and frustrated. I said, "God? I doubt it! I've worked so hard for this moment and I'm a good person and I've done all I can to live a good life! I have always been honest and never really saw the blessing! How can God reward me for this? I haven't really seen God do something miraculous in my life. I'm too far behind from the leader and only have one more day to compete!" I said so many things and was angry with my dad and God. Finally I walked off and said, "Impossible!"

For the rest of the night, I went off to practice and was the last person left on the golf course. My coach finally encouraged me that I've had enough practice and need to eat. He was getting tired and it was getting dark as well. Honestly, I don't know what happened the rest of that night because the next day completely overrode what had happened the previous day. I went about as if it was just another day and to my amazement, things were going so great! I had played the best round of my life! Little did I realize that I had won the tournament! "What? How can that be?" and then I cried. I looked to my dad and said, "What would have happened if I lied?" Seriously, I knew I would have carried a deep feeling of guilt even if I didn't win the tournament. God has taught me a valuable lesson through my dad. The two things God taught me was that nothing is impossible with God and that my honesty left a good feeling inside of me that I could never forget. Because of that, the next two years of my championship felt like a huge blessing! I was the first female golfer to win three straight years at a Division 1 high school in the state of Wisconsin. I created history in October 1998.

Therefore, no, I don't regret giving up golf because it is the life lessons that God has used through my circumstances to teach me. God has brought me to a place today that would never have happened if it wasn't because of those experiences. That is only one small part of my story... The lesson of the day: Luke 1:37 says, "For nothing is impossible with God."