Sarah Jean Photography: 2013

For the past fifteen years, my dream has always been to serve others through dentistry. I planned to graduate from Baylor, go to dental school, move back to South Dakota, work with my dad, and do short term missions every year. It was safe. It was safe in the fact that I had my life planned out for me and I was following in my role models' footsteps. I knew it would be a lot of work getting there, but I didn't have to worry about where I would be in ten years, I simply knew.

For the past couple of months, God allowed me to see that maybe going the safe route wasn't His greatest plan for me. It took a lot for God to get my attention, because I was focused on my plan for my life, hopping from stone to stone on my path, test to test, rather than looking at the bigger picture. Through a number of godly people encouraging and praying for me, I finally decided to listen to God. He softened my heart and allowed me to see that serving Him would be in a much different capacity than I planned for my life. My selfish desires were no longer an issue because I finally believed and trusted that God has much better plans for me. As I sat in church one Sunday morning, it finally sunk in that I was supposed to use my God-given talents/abilities to serve orphans. I asked myself why it took me this long to realize that God needs people to love, support, and meet the physical needs of those that have lost almost everything in this world? I don't like to gamble safety, which is exactly what God wants me to do....give Him everything… my career, my daily decisions, and my future. I realized that dentistry would bring me happiness, but serving orphans would bring me pure joy.

Where does this lead me? That's a great question. My future is unknown. I recently changed my major to Medical Humanities and added a Nonprofit minor. I trust God that He will continue to open doors and give me guidance as to where He wants me next. This new journey is unsafe… and I’m ok with that, because He goes before me.