This I Believe

Something I have unwavering faith in is God. This faith in God comes from how much He has done for me. He has blessed me with a safe home, a kind family, a loving church community, and people that are always there for me. I am so thankful for all these things and people that He has blessed me with because whenever I am in a time of need these people come to my rescue. They help guide me in the right direction so that I don’t harm myself or others. My faith was tested in the recent past and I learned some hard lessons.
During my sophomore and junior year, I was really struggling to figure out who I was as a person. As any child would do, I started to experiment with different things, testing my limits to see how far I could go without getting into trouble. Completely ignoring my faith, family, friends and their wise counsel. I even ignored my own knowledge of what is right versus wrong.
I got into trouble. I mean, a lot of trouble! Nothing was exceedingly severe eonugh that I would stop and turn in a different direction. I kept on going further and further down a “slippery slope”. Finally, my parents found out everything that I had done, and how dangerous it was to me and to others around me. At that moment I was angry. I didn’t want them to know. I didn’t want them to stop me. I wanted to do whatever I wanted when I wanted.
Growing up in a Christian household thinking back to the fact that I was taught what was right and wrong. I was unaware that the decisions that I was making in the present would eventually affect my future. Then it hit me, with my parents’ help, I was able to look deep inside myself to find out what I thought the problem was and how to fix it. I was able to see that the path that I was going down was leading me in the wrong direction, making me a person that I didn’t want to become.
Looking back at that time I realize how right my parents were and my friends that tried to warn me, telling me that what I was doing wasn’t a good idea. I continually thank God that He put those people in my life.
Since I have gone through this experience in my life I am able to take that lesson and use it for His honor and to help others by example. I am able to relate to people who don’t have the same faith as me and give them advice that they won’t immediately turn away. Since I have turned back to my faith in God I can strongly say that I have been happier ever since because of the people that He has put into my life and my changed direction in life. Because of this experience, and applying the life lesson from it, I am becoming the person I want to become.