Rescued From Myself

I grew up being the oldest of 5 children, raised by my mother, and my grandparents. In a home where Christianity was never brought up at the dinner table. We didn't go to church on Sunday's, and I honestly can say I don't think we even had a bible in our house. My family was never spiritual, and it wasn't until my middle school years that I went to church for the first time (that I can remember, that is).

In middle school, my best friend at the time, Heather took me to youth group with her every Wednesday and I slowly started to begin and understand how to read the bible, and how to worship God. At the time, I knew I wasn't yet ready to accept Christ as my savior because I felt as if I needed a clearer understanding. I had a wonderful youth pastor who I was able to talk to about anything, but being a part of such a large group of middle and high school aged children who grew up in the church and knew all the things that confused me, I couldn't exactly ask the questions I needed to understand the gospel. 

Heather and I grew apart as the years went on, we both ended up with different friends, and I stopped going to youth group. I moved, and ended up becoming friends with people, and doing a lot of things I regret.      During my junior year of high school, I met Kylee at work, and we became very good friends, she was there for me during some of my worst moments and helped me grow stronger as a person, I lived with her the summer Jon and I started talking. When Jon and I started hanging out more, and eventually started to date, he invited me to start going to church with him. To say the least, I was nervous, I knew he grew up in a Christian home and I didn't think I would be welcomed into his life or into his family, to my surprise, that wasn't the case at all. I was able to join in on bible time with his family, and it made me really start to think about Christianity and made me want to better understand the gospel. When Jon left for Basic Training the February of my senior year, I decided to use that time to really focus on my spirituality and take time to do more research and understand what it meant to be a Christian, it was during that time I decided to accept Christ into my life. 

Accepting Jesus as my savior meant a lot to me, I prayed a lot and confessed my sins and asked for forgiveness for all my past mistakes, and asked for guidance in my life. Jesus gave up his life for us, for our sins, and so we could be forgiven. We have all sinned at some point in our life, and we will continue to sin, which is why as a Christian it is extremely important to pray and ask for forgiveness, to read the gospel and ask for Salvation. By giving his life up for us on the cross, he was showing love and mercy for us, God offers us more than any one of us deserves, more than we could ask for, and by doing so, as Christians we must share the gospel, read and believe the gospel, and love one another as he loves us! It is important to me to read, know, and understand the Gospel, however I constantly return the Ephesians 2:1-10. Knowing we were saved by grace through faith, and God gifted us with grace, shows me his everlasting love for us. Ephesians 2:8-9 made it very clear to me that I did not have to “earn” salvation, which was a gift, and knowing what I know now, it was the greatest gift of my life.

I know I still have a lot of work to do, as does any Christian, but God loves me anyways, through all my flaws and mistakes, things and people will constantly leave your life, but God never will. Each day I grow stronger to Christ, I pray each day and I try to read more and more of my bible, I have a personal goal to read my entire bible before I get baptized, which I am hoping will be this summer.
            I want my daughter to know and love the gospel, it means a lot to me that she grows up in a Christian home, so she isn’t as confused or lost as I once was. I’m hoping as she grows older we can continue to teach each other more as we both learn and pray together.