My faithsister's design team work. The challenge was a spiritual moment. Here is the journaling " Many times in my life I look back and see God’s hand. Brent Nelson is one of those “times” when I see this. Brent and I were good friends through high school. I met Brent when He transfered into Bergman in 8th grade. We went to Christmas dance together that year. He asked me to “go out” with him. I just wanted to be friends. He crushed on me some of 8th grade. By 10th grade, the “crush” was all mine, but no avail. We were great friend. By 11th grade, the “crush” was mutual. But, I was four months shy of 16. Mom insisted that I could not date until I was 16. I begged. I pleaded. I cried. I.... Mom never gave in and she LOVED Brent. Brent brought me flowers for my 16th birthday. I was so excited that I kissed him on the cheek. Mom teased me and asked to see it again. By this time, Brent was seeing someone. We stayed friends. Through senior year and the first few months of college. My first time home, I met him and went to a party. The party scenes was not mine and yet I went to a few. I knew Brent as a great Christian guy. He didn’t smoke. He didn’t drink. He was just a great guy. We walked in. Some guy offered him a drink. He said no. The was normal all through high school (or so I thought). I never expected any thing different. The guy laughed and said “Yeah, Brent turn down a drink.” He held the beer out. Brent again said no. I turned just in time to see Brent nod my way. The guy said, “I get it.” He backed off. It didn’t set right with me. We stayed for a little while before I had Brent take me back to my car. We argued. I cried. We parted and I was crushed. The next day, I stopped at a local gas station to fill up before heading back to OBU. Brent was there waiting for me. He apologized. He said he always admired my faith. His was just not that strong. My faith was one of the things he loved about me, one of then things he always had loved about me. I didn’t understand. We parted ways. I still think he is a great guy. I didn’t understand any of this at the time. I was very hurt. Over the next few weeks, life went on as usual. One night I am reading my Old Testament assignment for class, and I hear No, go back. I read again. Amy, you are not listening. Read it again. And there, in the text of Isaiah I read,
“If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.”
I understood why Brent and I were always friends and never more.
(Side note: When I first met Dusty (my husband) I thought he looked a lot like Brent.)