What was life like before you met Jesus?
I needed friends and acceptance. I needed to live up to my or others' standards. I needed to be enough and appear the best to those around me.I felt like I wasn't worth it, that I didn't measure up, because I kept falling into the same sins and kept struggling with relationships. I was lacking God-centered relationships and the belief that I was loved. I was arrogant and conceited and thought that I was better than everyone else even with all my struggles. I was my own savior. Then i would fail
How did you meet Jesus?
I accepted Christ when I was 7 and I didn't understand what I was doing at the time but I guess it just seemed right, I still remember feeling joyful. Going through elementary and middle school I actually disliked the thought of God. I always heard that God sees everything and to me it seemed like He just wanted to control my life and give me all these rules to follow. Again I needed to be my own savior, so I wanted to control and set standards for my own life. When I was around 10 I seriously started thinking about God and what He did for me and I realized that Jesus didn't just die, He died for me. He suffered a gruesome death because He fully loved me and so that i might come to know Him. After that I still didn't take God very seriously but around the past few years He’s been working in my heart and I started having conversations with adults in my life about what it means to truly follow Christ. When I started going to veritas youth group in 9th grade i experienced a group of people my age who truly loved and followed Jesus to the best of their ability. God used these people to convict me of my lack of faith. It was like God says in 1 Peter 2:25: “for you were like sheep going astray but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls”
After being saved by Jesus, what is your life like now?
He became what I could not. He took on the sin that I couldn't shake and loves me still. I'm still learning to give Him full control and glory. I know though that everyday He gives me grace. He fully knows and loves me at all times. I think Paul said it well in 1 Peter 1:3-4: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you”.