07 Jun “…I did have a lot of fun when I was out with my friends, I felt the opposite when I was home by myself”
These testimonies are from real women with real life experiences who are sharing their stories to hopefully help encourage you and help you relate to their experiences.
I grew up going to church every Sunday without fail. Unfortunately, God and the Gospel did not permeate the home where I grew up. I came to believe that being a Christian was more about following the right rules than about having a relationship with God. I learned that Christians shouldn’t swear, listen to secular music, drink, smoke, or have sex before marriage. I have no doubt that good intentions lay behind these rules, but they sucked all the life, joy, and personal nature out of knowing and loving God.
Not surprisingly, I graduated from high school, went off to college and rebelled, doing all of the things on the “forbidden” list. While I was at first extremely wary of the students who spent their weekends partying, I realized that they seemed to be having a good time and I soon joined them. My party girl lifestyle continued for several years, and while I did have a lot of fun when I was out with my friends, I felt the opposite when I was home by myself. The fun quickly fizzled and left me feeling alone and unsure of what to do about it.
That is when God intervened in a miraculous way. A friend of mine from college called me up and invited me to go out dancing in the city one Friday night. We got dressed up, headed into town, had a couple drinks and hit the dancefloor. I saw a guy there that I thought was good looking and gave him my phone number, which was something I had never done before. A few weeks later, that guy called me up and brought me to Pastor Mark’s church. It was there that I heard the Gospel for the first time despite having grown up in church. Suddenly, my life made sense. I understood why my life was a wreck and I couldn’t seem to fix it. I needed Jesus to fix it.
That was many years ago. I am now happily married and a mother of four awesome kids. In the years since I met Jesus, he has brought me on a winding journey. I have been through seasons in which God taught me about who He is and how much He loves me. I have also been through seasons in which I’ve dealt with pain from my past. These have been seasons where God has graciously walked with me while I forgave people who I had been bitter against and learned to love and bless them instead. As difficult as these seasons were, I am thankful for God healing my past and giving me a future of freedom in Him. I am still amazed at the about-face that my life took on that random Friday night in a bar. I was headed for certain self-destruction, but God stepped in and drew me to Himself, and I am looking forward to the day that I will see him face to face and be forever and finally home.
