Hello lovely people! Thank you for taking the time to wish to know me a bit better. I couldn’t think of any better way than to simply share my testimony of salvation:
I was born and raised in a household that choose to trust and believe in Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross and make the dedication to attend church regularly. I personally choose to accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and savior when I was five years old. I can clearly remember kneeling down beside my bed by myself (just like all the kids in the pictures at the Christian book stores would do) and asking Jesus to come and live in side my heart.
I loved Jesus and God, but as I grew up, I began to let fear come into my life. I let it influence what I did or didn’t say and what I did or didn’t do. I was afraid of rejection from my peers in middle and high school, so I turned to denying myself food in order to fit the thin pretty image that I thought would help me make friends. I was also afraid to be fully known by others, believing they would find me lacking and not up to their expectations. In response I turned to isolation. I never let people get too close so that they could not reject me or shame me for what had become a full blow anorexic eating disorder.
God was present in my life even when I was not actively seeking Him out all the time. He was slowly toppling the idols I had created out of my body image, reputation, and success. I became depressed half way through high school and gained a good bit of weight. It showed me just what a bad idea it is to put your happiness into something so unstable as how you look. I wish I could say this was enough to draw me back to God completely. I would make attempts to read my Bible and go to church. However, I was never consistent at it after leaving home to go to culinary school and then starting my career as a cook.
A part of me always kept searching for a way into a relationship with God no matter the ways I would stray away from Him. I don’t think I truly understood then how to have a relationship with God. In God’s mercy and provision I moved to Fort Worth, Texas three years ago to live close to family. I began to go to my family’s church and got plugged into a ministry called Equipped Disciple. Similar to a bible study, we meet once a week and talk about the importance of and how to read the bible daily, pray, and evangelize in God’s name. I also learned how to build a relationship with God and how to live transparently among my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.
I have grown greatly in my spiritual maturity. I now know my worth is not found in what I have or haven’t done but in my identity as a child of God. I now know and believe in what 2 Timothy 1:7 says: “For God has not given us a spirit of fearfulness, but one of power, love, and sound judgment.” I am content and joyfully living in God’s will for my life, and there is no greater way to live!
Isiah 55:6-7 “Seek the Lord while He may be found; call to Him while He is near. Let the wicked one abandon his way and the sinful one his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, so He may have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will freely forgive.”
