Trusting God's Plan

“As I was raised in the Catholic Church from birth, it is hard for me to narrow in on an exact time when I started my faith journey. However, I know it progressed significantly my freshman year of college. I think at that time in life I was in such a miserable state because of all of the change happening so fast. Moving away from home, my friends, my family, and everything I had ever known. There was a point where I was so confused that I didn’t even feel like myself anymore. I lost all control of my life and it felt as if my world had flipped upside down. So thankfully I turned to my faith and my relationship with God – the one thing I felt that I had control over. I started to pray more and reflect on how God has worked out my life in the past. Honestly I had no other choice than to give up how I thought my life SHOULD be and trust God to take control of how he has PLANNED it to be. Now as I have grown in my faith from high school, I have experienced an extreme sense of confidence in God’s plan for my life. I believe that he puts us in trials in order for us to grow in our faith and to come out so much STRONGER in the end.

Truthfully, every single day it is a struggle to stay committed and put my faith first, especially being in college when it isn’t considered “cool”. I would have to say some things that help me continue strengthening my faith, aside from church, are praying and reading books. I find it makes me feel better to pray to God about literally anything: whether it is asking for guidance in a tough situation or expressing gratitude when things are working out. Another small thing I try to do every day is read a page out of a 365 day devotional type book. This integrates a small scripture into an everyday, relatable life scenario and it helps me to better understand the Bible. As for my journey with faith, I have a long way to go and a lot more to learn but I am excited to see where God will lead me in this process.”

-Amanda Robben (sophomore), The University of Cincinnati