I want to tell you that I have a boring salvation story, but I can already hear multiple people (my dad, mom, Brax, and others) in my head saying that is simply not true.
I am richly blessed to have been raised in a family that most have a personal faith with God. My maternal grandparents met in Cambodia where my grandfather was stationed in the military and my grandmother was a missionary at the time. They married and showed steady faith in God to my mom. My paternal grandparents started in a cult church when my dad was young. Through God’s wonderful ways, they eventually left it and began to faithfully attend a church where my dad accepted Christ into his heart as a teenager. My parents met at a Bible college in Roseville, MN and decided to journey through life together as one, pursuing God above all.
I share this to let you know that I believe my family’s history has profoundly impacted my life in ways I still can’t fully comprehend. I am eternally blessed by the generations before me that have chosen to follow Jesus, throwing off their old life and embracing their new life in Christ.
I have a faint memory of my brother and I talking with my dad about asking Jesus into our hearts. Growing up in a biblically grounded church and many family members entrenched in their faith, allowed my faith to have a firm foundation from a very young age. I was also homeschooled and that allowed me the opportunity to learn more about Jesus in the academic realm as well.
During the summer after my freshman year at college, I read through Hosea. I may not have outwardly rebelled against God, but there were some heart matters that had been festering behind the curtain. Hosea showed me the ugliness of my sin and desires that I had placed before my allegiance to the King. It broke me. God wanted all of me, every inch of my body, mind, heart, and soul. God then restored peace and a renewed relationship with Him.
From that time on, I fondly look back and read Hosea 2:14
“Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her…. And in that day, declares the LORD, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’”
I don’t know if you have experienced this, but our God has a sense of humor, and he gleefully has interwoven his humor into my story. When I was a teenager, I decided that I would not marry a man that would be a pastor. Don’t get me wrong, pastors are extraordinary people and getting to witness God’s work while being in close relations to a pastor is a gift. However, just like everything we walk through in this sin-infested world, it comes with its seasons of hardships and heartache.
As you already know, or have guessed, I am married to the youth pastor of our church, Brax Carvette.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.” – Isaiah 55:8
Only God could have made this work. I graduated college and came home to live while trying to figure out the next steps of my life. Brax was best friends with my brother and would join in the shenanigans my siblings and I concocted. Naturally, we started having more conversations together that covered every topic that weighed on our minds while attending bonfires, birthday parties, riding horses, and a road trip to South Dakota. It was beautiful. God showed me that I could trust Brax as he was pursuing God first in his life and that is all that truly mattered.
We are now five years into marriage, one year left of seminary, raising two amazing children and another due to arrive in July. Throughout my life story, God has been a constant foundation. He has shown me that he is a relentless pursuer and an all-consuming fire that wants every part of our lives.
