Meet Sarah. Me. This is my story… an auto-biography of sorts. I will take you on a journey through my life… my ups and down, misconceptions, “legalistic religious” beliefs, dreams, passions, crazy experiences, hurts, joys, my challenges and challenges to you… everything. How they have all evolved into who I am today.

I know I am about to be vulnerable. That’s a weird place to intentionally choose to walk into. But, I feel it is important. I have a story to share, and if I can impact one person’s life in a positive way… it was all worth it.  All I ask from you is to be open, sensitive to my heart, and before judging me, please ask questions and open up a conversation.  And please, if something impacts you in a positive way… I would love to know about that too.

I was born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska as a city girl. My mom grew up as the farm girl, not me. (I’ve never shared this before, but I secretly wish I had been a farm girl because now that I would love to garden and have animals, but am utterly CLUELESS). I grew up with my mom (Jennifer) and dad (Art) ( they are still married) and my older brother A.C. (His real name is Arthur Carl Jetter III, which I think is pretty cool. My second son’s middle name is even Arthur.)

  
(Photo 1: Family farm in Louisville, NE & Photo 2: Jorge and I, 3 kiddos, My parents, and My brother and his wife Sara. )

I don’t have the a lot of memories from my childhood… I wish I did. But what I do remember was good. Holidays, Vacations, Family times, etc… Thankfully my mom has been amazing at keeping photo albums, so we can look back at so any good times. One of the things I remember was my mom taking us to church on Sundays to King of Kings Lutheran Church. I honestly don’t remember if it was every week or sporadically, but eventually we only went on holidays. Then at some point in junior high, my mom told me that I had to do Confirmation Classes at church. I was NOT HAPPY to say the least, but it was a non-negotiable as far as I remember.  So… my 8th grade year I started going to church again. Little did I know that this was just the beginning of an amazing journey.  Low and behold I met some new friends and loved the new “social” scene. Once confirmation classes were over and I was “confirmed”, I continued to go to church so that I could hang out with my friends.  That’s not a “holy & righteous” thing to admit. But it’s true. What I know now is that God is good, can turn anything for His glory, He is interested in the journey, and cares about my heart TODAY. It’s not about how pretty the journey began.

During my sophomore year of high school my life/heart began to shift… the Lord was calling me into a deeper place with Him. All of a sudden it wasn’t about seeing my friends anymore… there was something else I longed for when I went to church.  While in high school I was very involved in school activities: tennis, gymnastics, and band. Yes, I was a band nerd… a cool one though, right? Anyway. I began to play piano when I was 5 and saxophone when I was 11, and played both until I graduated.

RAW Heart #1… I LOVED playing music… both saxophone and piano. It gave me joy and touched my soul, BUT I always felt like I wasn’t as good as the others around me.  I have so many shoulda, woulda, coulda thoughts whenever I think about music when I was younger. Maybe had I just expressed to someone, probably my mom, how important it TRULY was to me, I could have had private lessons to improve my skills. But… I didn’t. When I went to college (TCU), I toured the music building to see how I could fit music in, but felt so incredibly incompetent that I walked out and stopped playing music all together.   The saxophone stayed in the closet and I didn’t make the effort to find a piano.  I have played the piano probably twice a year since then. My husband even bought me one in Guatemala, but it was hard to find the time with 2 little boys running around. Then, I started worship classes through ministry school a couple years ago, but that was entirely overwhelming and again, I felt like a failure.  This is definitely one of my biggest “regrets”, yet it’s not too late.

Challenge for myself: Find time for music. Get a piano or learn guitar… this year !
Challenge for you: What do you love? What is your passion? How can you fit it in this year? If you are willing to share, I would love to hear your story.