Chelsea Zerwekh!

I am so excited to start this monthly thing, and am proud to introduce you to a wonderful woman I have had the opportunity to get to know (just a little). Enjoy her story and go check her out.

Hello there! I’m Chelsea and I blog over at Hobby HoppingHousewife. Shannon recently shared with me that she wanted to start having people guest blog and share their testimonies. And I’m so excited because she asked me to be the first one! (Actually, she asked me a while ago… but I had to figure out the right version of I wanted to go with. I mean, we all have a short version and a long version and the really long one. Hahha. I needed a blog version and it pretty much starts, continues and ends with my husband.)

I met Justin way back in high school (by way back I mean like seven years ago! Ieesh!) through a friend that he was dating. He was a Christian, uber honest and quite the hopeless romantic. Like watched way too many sappy movies of what girls think a guy should be like and then times that by ten. Don’t get me wrong, that’s really great and all, but he was doing it for the wrong girl. Little did I know I would be the right one (six years laterish)!

High school came and went and so did they people we dated… and then we found each other on facebook! Shortly after that (shortly meaning like a day) I went to Verizon to get something fixed or whatever and they deleted all my contacts! It was terrible! So when I got home I sent a message out to my friend friends (ya know, the non-acquaintances, the people I was actually friends with) and Justin saying that “I lost my numbers, please send me yours.” Little did Justin know that I was fishing for his number and that he was the only one that I sent the message to that I didn’t already previously have. Best part, he took the bait! He texted me later on that day and we went on our last first date that we’d ever have.

So anyways, I didn’t grow up in a religious home. My dad claimed he was a Christian and my mom a Catholic. They supposedly couldn’t agree on what to raise us as, so they did neither. Which is whatever. Going into the relationship with Justin, I knew he was a Christian, but I wasn’t because I didn’t “need the help” and could “do it all on my own.” I also knew this would be an eventual problem for us because I knew he’d only marry a women who had accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior.

The further into our relationship I started to see that Justin’s faith was growing and his walk getting stronger. That he would have these things called convictions and the more his faith grew, the better man he was becoming. And as I saw all these incredibly good things in his life that God was supposedly doing for him, the more it made me rethink and question what I believe.

I remember he told me one night, “the thing that makes me the most sad is that if something were to happen to us and we died, I wouldn’t get to see you in Heaven.” Oh man did that bring tears to my eyes! And that’s when I really started to rethink things.

He eventually asked me to come to church with him. I loved him so much and I knew how much he wanted me to know God and how important it was to him, so I went. And kept going. And then one day a friend of ours asked if I wanted to do the media slides during worship because no one else was and that it wasn’t that hard. I said yes because Justin was doing sound and we would get to do it together so that meant more time spent with him. And to spend more time with Jus meant going to church more, and hearing the word of God more.

And then Justin sat me down one day. And I knew it was coming. He told me that he loved me more than I could possibly know, but he couldn’t marry me. That he would wait forever, but he had made a promise to God that he wouldn’t do it unless I gave myself to Christ. And I remember wanting to cry so badly when he said that. I wanted to tell him that I wanted it for me too, I just didn’t know how. But instead, I just sat there. I could see how much it pained him to say that to me. To tell me that he loved me, but he loved God even more.

That all really gave me the kick in the butt I needed. I had a meeting with the pastor because I didn’t know why I just couldn’t let go and let God. And then I found myself praying sometimes. And so I texted Justin that.  And he asked if we could pray after he got off work, and we did.

Through Justin I got to see God’s love, His light and hear His word. I am so blessed.

Love,

Chels