I was blessed to grow up in the church, surrounded by the truth of the Gospel from an early age. When I was ten years old, the weight of eternity settled on my heart. I went to my great-grandfather and asked him how to be saved. He opened up the Scriptures and shared his favorite verse with me—John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Right there, looking at the Bible with him, I placed my faith in Jesus. That moment became the bedrock of my life. As I grew older, life became more complex. Like anyone walking this earth, I found myself facing intense struggles and heavy temptations. The pressure of sin was real, and it would have been easy to fall away. But instead of turning to the world to cope, I leaned even further into the Word of God. In those moments of trial, God became my direct guide. He began to direct my steps, and He still guides me to this very day. Whenever I am right in the thick of a struggle, I have learned to stop and think about Jesus. I look at how He walked, how He was tempted in the wilderness, and how He handled the pressures of this life. It brings me an immense amount of comfort to know that when I am struggling, I am not facing anything unfamiliar to my Savior. Jesus faced the exact same situations, the exact same human temptations—yet He overcame them completely. Because He overcame, I know that through Him, I can too.

I was saved at 8 after waking up from a nightmare and asking my mom how to be saved and she showed me John 3:16 “For God so loved the world,[a] that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." I later got wrapped up in sin and became prodigal in my teenage years, during those years I tried seeking God a few times, but only halfheartedly, so I didn't truly find him. But one day I got to a point where I really looked at my life and the sins for what they really were, and how worthless they were, that they were only bringing death to my fellowship with God and now I was at a point where I felt that death and emptiness deep in my soul... But even in that place, God was still reaching out to me, and this verse came to mind Jeremiah 29:13 "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." So I trusted this verse. I also kept this other verse in the back of my mind, knowing this requirement also had to be met in order for me to find God. Hebrews 11:6 "And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him." I wrestled with each of the idols when I got home that day, and the fellowship death I was experiencing was replaced with fulfillment and purpose. It reminds me of this verse: John 4:13-14 "Jesus answered, 'Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.'" The physical water resembling the idols in my life (things I loved more then God), and the water that Jesus gives resembling the Holy Spirit that came to live inside of me. But I was still loaded down with addiction that took me a few more years to break free from, as I walked with God during that time, and along the way I seeked help to have the demons casted out of me which were holding me captive to certain sins and torments in my life.