Miranda Cook

A Changed Life :: By Paige Wiley

I was born into a family where there was confusion about what was truth. My dad was Catholic and my mom was Methodist and I just knew that there was a God. We never attended church as a family and never spoke about who Jesus was. We also didn’t pray before meals, or go to church on Christmas. I always had a lot of questions about who God was. I remember sneaking to the laundry room to read my children’s Bible because I just yearned to know more about my Creator. When I was in fourth grade, my mom and I started to go to a church because my parents wanted me to be raised with good morals. We didn’t stay at that church for long because we “wanted our weekends to relax.”

But two years later, we moved, and I longed to be involved in church because I wanted to be in a choir like I saw on TV. That never happened, but we decided to go to a Lutheran church and I was confirmed when I was in 8th grade. I learned a lot about the Bible and what fellowship looked like but I still didn’t know what it all meant for me or what it was going to look like to live a life with Christ. After I was confirmed, we never went back to church. We just went back to “enjoying our weekends.” Growing up I struggled a lot with my identity and loving who I was. I lived by good morals which led to me judging others, because I thought I was “better”. Because of that, I didn’t have a lot of friends in high school and that created even more of an identity struggle.

When I made the transition to K-State, I decided to live in Smurthwaite Scholarship/Leadership House. I roomed with a girl named Aspen. From the first day I met her she was a little different – more positive, more loving for people, more kind, etc. She would ask a lot of questions about my faith and encourage me to come to campus ministries with her. At that time I was really bitter with God and had a lot of friend issues – I just was not happy. Aspen continued to be a light in my life by showing me what it meant to live a true Christian life. She would journal while reading her Bible, worshiped the Lord, and shared the gospel. Because I was who I was, I would make fun of her and tell her to turn the music off and was just truly awful to her. But because she loved the Lord more than anything, she saw through my bitterness and continued to love me.

The next semester, I got a job at the Academic and Career Information Center. During that time I was fully surrounded by people that loved God with all of their heart and I knew I wanted to be a part of that. I was walking home one day and decided that I wanted to go to church that summer and learn more about Christ, all because I watched a strong Christian woman live her life. That summer I filled my time with the Lord and began journaling to know more about Christ. When I came back to school, I signed up for a Christian retreat that January and was very excited to start to learn more about Jesus.

During the time at the conference, my life changed. We learned about Jesus and I fell in love with him there. I remember singing in worship and feeling a flood of emotions come over me and at that moment, I was committed to my Savior.  I was all in, and I committed my life to Christ.

After committing my life to Christ, there were a lot of things that were different. I felt the urgency to serve and to love. I began volunteering with children and helping them and I served at church. I didn’t enjoy being around children before Christ, but after, I loved them because He loves them.

I still struggle with identity and loving myself.  But I have been able to grow my relationships and understand who I am as a daughter of Christ. I see my sisters and brothers in a more loving manner. Being able to love Christ and love people better has been a life changing experience and I am excited to see where it takes me.