4 Lessons I Learned From 9th Grade

I just completed my first year of high school. It was also my first year of public school.

At this point I have tried homeschooling, private school, and public school, and let me say that I like public school the least of the three. But God had reasons for me to be there and ways for me to grow and learn to rely on Him more.

Thinking back, here are four things I learned this year that I want to share with you:

Christian friends are precious.
Up until this year, most if not all of my friends were Christian. This year, I started hanging out more with people who were not. My lifeline was the Christian fellowship group that met once a week after school.

I didn't get really close with everyone in the group, but just knowing that there were other Christians in the building was a huge encouragement to me.

I also got to be really good friends with several girls, who I would probably say were my best friends this year. Having a close Christian friend in such a secular environment is invaluable. I don't know how I would have survived the year without them.

Being openly Christian is scary, hard, and embarrassing.
I'm still not able to just tell someone I'm a Christian without feeling slightly embarrassed, although it has gotten better. My closest friends know that I'm a Christian, and we've had conversations about it. But when difficult topics come up in conversation like feminism, abortion, and the dress code, I tend to back away and try to become invisible rather than share my opinion.

I have grown a little in this though: I've gotten to the point where I can put Bible verses in my locker without feeling embarrassed and I no longer mumble when I tell people I'm going to Christian Fellowship.

But sharing that I'm a Christian is much, much harder than I ever thought it would be.

Just because someone says that they are a Christian doesn't mean they really are.
This was something that I really didn't realize until this year. One of my good friends says she is a Christian. When I first met her, I thought, "Great! A Christian girl I can hang out with!" It didn't take long for me to realize, though, that we were living very different lives.

I can't judge her heart, of course, but if you're truly a Christian it's supposed to show. So just proceed with caution; don't assume that someone is living the same life as you if they say they are a Christian. Often people just think that means you go to church. Which, as we all know, is not the definition of a Christian.

A true faith will be strengthened like never before.
I have heard the objection to public school that "it's really easy to stop being a Christian".

But here's the thing: if you "stop being a Christian", you were never really one in the first place. My experience was that my faith was tested, and strengthened in the testing. If you have a true faith, high school will be a place for it to be challenged and for you to rely on God like you've never had to before.

Leave me a comment if you identify with these truths! What else have you learned this year?