Joseph Wall Influences

My first influences came from a conversation way back in the fifth grade. A girl who i do not actually remember her name, just talked about deep life stuff that had happened to her in her past  home life. This was the start of me being being told by my peers that I was easy to talk with and I had a talent for just listening and asking relevant questions about whatever the topic was. This is the foundation to me thinking about helping people as a future profession. I believe that God used this situation to start a passion that has turned into a life calling of helping people talk through the stories of what has made them the people that they are today, looking back I see the hand of God laying down the ground work for my life, and, I really find that a place of trust to the future purposes that are mold my counseling life as I grow in the profession.


Second, is a Bible professor and really a temporary mentor in my life. After a girl who I was planning a marriage with ended our relationship with a messy break up, this professor asked me a question that has driven me for most of my young adult life. He asked "what are we doing, joey" outside on a road that is now a parking lot, he challenged me to why I was throwing my life away, to why I had given up, when I had so much potential to impact the world. This was the first time and, sadly the last that anyone at the institution was supportive of my pursuit of counseling degree. Those words has impacted me more than any other in my short 24 almost 25 years of life. I feel that God used this professor to wake me up to my potential and really shake my world and allow me to see my purpose in life was to help people. I honestly do know if I would have finished college or stayed at the school if it wasn't for God using this man to walk into my path and just be present and remold my belief in myself.

Third, is a man that I never actually had the pleasure of meeting. A close friend who I have had the pleasure of having deep conversations about marriage and relationships in general is getting married next month. The pastor that is doing their pre-martial counseling was told about my thoughts on marriage and those deep conversations I had with my friend, and said that I was a wise young man. This is the newest and truly one of the most valuable praise that I have gotten from a person that does pre-marriage counseling on a regular basis. As I am about 1.5 years away from my degree, I have started to get graduate school overload, this feeling was greater before November when I heard these words from my friend on what his pastor thought of my ideas. I feel that God has used this man to recharge me in a way to not lose sight of the prize of a masters degree. God has allowed me to see that this is bigger than me and is truly my purpose and that it allows me to see the impact that i will have on marriages and the family as I just continue to follow where the Lord leads me.