Kira Updike: 1st/2nd grade

 Testimony & Career

            From the time I was five years old and probably until I was married, every weekend, my baby brother and I would spend the night at our grandma’s house.  Mostly, because my daddy was raising us by himself and he would have to work two, sometimes even three extra jobs on the weekends just to make end’s meet; but I know that God had His own reasons. Every weekend, it was my grandma who dressed my brother and me in our Sunday best and took us to church.

My grandparents have never put anything in front of going to church, and certainly to them, nothing ever came before God.  The value and importance of knowing God and everything I know about Him and having a relationship with Jesus Christ was taught to me by them. 

At the age of 10, I accepted Jesus Christ into my heart.  Even though I had many struggles as a teenager and even as a young adult, God has ALWAYS been faithful to me. He has always shown me that even though I do not always understand why He does things at times, there is always a reason.  There is always a light at the end of the tunnel.  I learned you have to have faith in Jesus, and truly believe that He knows best.

Growing up without a mother also caused a lot of struggles and grief in my life; however, it is because of this life experience, that God prepared me for my calling in  life-my work as a teacher.  I have known since I was 7 years old that I wanted to work with children.  I know that this is God’s place for me here on Earth.  My biggest test of faith, however, was probably listening to and obeying God and moving to Tennessee from Virginia last year.  It was a very difficult decision for my family because everything we knew and everyone we loved was right there around us. In Tennessee, we knew nothing, and we knew no one.  We had to solely rely on faith and God.  Things have not been very easy- but I like to believe that if it was easy, then it wasn’t God. If what we do and who we are is of God and Christ-like, then Satan will constantly try to break us and bring us down.  One of my most loved and most helpful verses of Scripture is Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”