A Love Story: Piece by Piece Part 10

I couldn't wait to get home to tell my bff about who was living in the same complex as us. Our conversation went a little something like this:

"Dude! Guess who lives in these apartments, too???"

"Who?"

"Hunter and Hayden!!!"

"Dude!!!"

"Dude."

"Dude! We should, like, try to find their apartment and make them some cookies or something.... like, 'Hey! We're neighbors!' kind of cookies."

"Dude. We totally should."

"Dude, we could all be friends and hang out all the time."

"Dude...... I know."

(That's exactly the way me and her talked to each other......)

We spent the next month looking into every car that drove past us, either coming into the apartment complex, or leaving the complex. We also drove around one or two times just to see if we could guess which apartment they lived in. Yeah, I don't know why we thought that would be successful...... Anyways, we pretty much gave up. Carrington Hills was a huge apartment complex.

The day I turned 20 was bittersweet. My bff got a big group of people together to celebrate at our apartment and we felt so grown up. 20. That was a mighty big number for such a young person. You always dream about being in your twenties when you're little; All the things you'll have accomplished by then- college, big important jobs, grown-up friends, being on your own, being in a serious relationship.....

At 20, I was serving in an independently owned restaurant, working towards my associate's degree, learning to know God outside of what you learn in youth group, and bumming about the fact that there I was- hopelessly single.... just like I had been for my entire life.

I remember laying in bed the night I turned 20 and just kind of talking/questioning God. I was 20 and had yet to date someone- have someone to call my own. I had yet to have my first kiss or even hold hands with a guy. I had yet to be swept off my feet. I opened up my bible and started reading in the book of Psalms. I read 37:4, which says, "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart."

Almost immediately after I read it, it's like I heard God repeat it back to me in the most enlightening way. He said,

"Heather, delight yourself in Me first. I want you to be completely satisfied in Me and Me alone, first and foremost, then I will give you what your heart is desiring."

I will never forget the way that verse hit me that night. I had read it SO many times before, but NEVER read it like this. I realized that I had to learn to be completely content and at peace with exactly where the Lord had me at the moment, because it taught me how to trust in Him and His plan. And I learned that He knew my heart's desires and that He wanted to give them to me, but that I needed to come to Him first, to completely and wholeheartedly lean on Him.

So with that, I felt instant satisfaction. I remember smiling from ear to ear and saying "You know what, Lord? I'm done with guys. I am truly ok with being single. I will wait as long as it takes if that means that You are going to bring me someone who is beyond all my expectations. I know You have a person out there for me and that You know who and what I need. Heck, Lord. Even if what I need is to be single for the next five years, then so be it! Even if I'm supposed to be single for the rest of my life- I'm ok with that! From this point on, You are EVERYTHING I need."

And I meant every word. Just like that, I was completely and 100% satisfied with where the Lord had me- and that was being single.

A few days later, my sister and her boyfriend (now her husband) invited me to a show in Nashville. I wasn't jumping to go, but then they told me Mister Man (I'm pretty sure you know who I'm talking about. The guy I'd been chasing?) would be there. So I thought I'd give it ONE LAST SHOT just to see if we could even carry on a conversation and if I figured out that there was no hope, then it would sort of be like closure- things weren't meant to be and I would have peace. That's so embarrassing to say, but I have to say it because it's vital to my story.

So I went with Erin and Brandon down to Rocketown and I saw Mister Man there. I almost knew exactly how things would go. I would try to act like I didn't know he was going to be there and he would be complacent about me being there. And that's precisely what happened, but that's ok because it was helping me let go of whatever hope I dreamed up back in my senior year.

But what I didn't realize is that God was only using this boy as a tool to get me exactly where He wanted me that night.................................