Lessons From My Friends: Work Hard

I love this pic of Kalyn & Cindi.  Describes them well.

Yes, the last name is the same, this is Cindi's daughter Kalyn Lantz.  The whole family is pretty remarkable!  But today it's about Kalyn.  My relationship with Kalyn began about 6 to 8 years ago.  She was in 8th grade and I remember looking at her and saying, "She's going to do great things!"  It was from that moment on our relationship began.

Kalyn was one of those students you dream you get to work with.  They are few and far between. You know the student...They see all of their GOD potential and realize there is so much more to life than themselves.  They use their platforms to invest in others.  I remember countless conversations with her about how she can reach out to her friends/teammates.  It's unbelievable really.  What teen does that?  Not many.  But when they do, it's a lot of fun!!  If you read my previous post about her mother Cindi you can see that Kalyn is a product of both of her parents teaching the important of investing in others.

But that is not what this post is about.  This one is Kalyn's ability to work amazingly hard.  Whether it is relationships, school, sports, or her relationship with God Kalyn gives it her all.  She understands what it means to live out Colossians 3:23-24 (Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving).  I remember early on seeing that verse embedded in her life.  It was in her signature, on her notebooks, and lived out in her life.  When the world around her gave only half of there efforts and told her to do likewise, she leaned on this verse and triumphed above it!

As a result, God blessed her....
In high school...

• God was able to give her this incredible opportunity to share the love of Christ not only to her teammates, coaches and opponents, but also to the public.  She had countless interviews on tv where she boldly talked about God.
• I honestly believe that if you were to ask any of her classmates now, they would say Kalyn spoke love, kindness and truth into their lives.  I bet they'd say their life was changed by her.
• At church, she invested in the girls younger than her in small group, in Upward basketball, on various mission trips, countless conversations with people and tons more.  She reached out to her classmates and brought them to church.  Because of her hard work, her investment...their lives were changed

Now, entering into her senior year of college...

• She has had the opportunity to travel around the world investing in and helping to rescue those who were saved from human trafficking.  She is still doing work stateside with this organization.
• She spent a semester in Uganda studying and learning from/investing in the people.
• She has done countless things at Taylor University.

The thing about Kalyn is she doesn't overload her schedule.  She chooses what is the most important and throws herself into it.  Because she works for God and not man she knows that what she is doing is making a difference.  That is where she finds her reward.

Honestly when I think about putting my all into something, I think of this verse and I think of Kalyn.  What a great example of a Truth lived out!

I'm a bit rusty with design work, but it was fun!