Our N & M's: Signing Day

After coming off a very eventful sectional swim, Marissa had another big day on Monday morning as she was invited to the "Signing Day" at her high school. She was invited along with nine other athletes to be recognized as one of the high schoolers who had signed letters of intention to compete at the collegiate level in their various sports and that would happen at 7:30 a.m. on Monday morning, February 5th.

After the kids all arrived, they were asked to line up in a row for a couple of group pictures for the school's website. Then they were ushered off to the side once again and then called up to sit at the table one at a time for the website's individual pictures. As they sat at the table, they were told to introduce themselves, tell what sport they were playing, what they were majoring in, what college they chose, and why. They didn't know in advance that they had to talk so Marissa was thankful that she was about half-way through.

Pretty soon, it was her turn to take the hot seat up front. I could tell that she was nervous because she doesn't like talking in front of people and being the center of attention, but what she said surprised me and actually made me tear up with pride.

Marissa sat down and introduced herself. Then she said that she would be attending Indiana Wesleyan to swim and that she was double majoring in criminal justice and social work. She went on to say that she chose Indiana Wesleyan because their swimming program is very competitive and almost always nationally ranked, but more importantly, because she wanted to go where she knew she could grow in her personal relationship with Jesus Christ because her faith was most important to her.

Wow! My mama's heart almost burst with pride because I know her faith is important to her but I also know that it took a lot of courage for her to say the name of Jesus Christ out loud in such a public forum. (Especially since there are several self-proclaimed 'Jesus haters' on her swim team and they were all there watching her and have mocked her faith in the past). I know that God will bless her for taking that stand though -- that He already has in many ways - and I'm praying that she can continue to live boldly and be strong through the rest of the year as she strives to make a difference with her peers.

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With all of the introductions now complete, all of the athletes had time to gather family and friends together and to take pictures in front of the backdrops.

Marissa sat with the girls swimming and dive team first as many of them needed to head off to class.

And then she took a couple of pictures with some running friends who were there in support of her.

A couple of them are also believers and two girls took the time to hug her and to thank her for having the courage to say what she did. One sweet girl said, "You're such an inspiration. I hope that I can do the same when it's my turn".

As we were getting ready to take a few more pictures, the boys soccer coach came up to Marissa and introduced himself to her. Then he said that he wanted her to know that "out of all of the athletes that morning, she was the only one who said the name of Jesus as the reason for her choice and that he wanted her to know what an impact that it made on him because she understood what was important".

(More proud tears from me, that's for sure. LOL)