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Discovering God's Gentleness
I am incredibly thankful for the family I was blessed with. I have devoted Christian parents, and I was raised in church by them, along with my two very supportive older brothers. However, around middle school, I became very emotionally distant from God, which resulted in my complete rejection of the plans He had for me. I became very angry because of life circumstances that I did not know how to navigate at such a young age. After living in years of anger and hurt, I discovered the true purpose of life through a summer camp. While being surrounded by the most loving people I have ever met in my life, I knew that I had been living falsely, and I could find no better answer to my pain than the sacrifice Jesus made to take away the sting of death. I rededicated my life to God and have been living in consistency with Him ever since. I still have my bad season, and I still struggle with sin a lot, but the differentiation between my life now and the life I lived before I knew Jesus is immense.
Before I received eternal life, I struggled with anger and addiction.
Before Jesus was the center of my life, I gravitated towards a lot of physical and emotional habits that caused mistreatment of myself and others; I felt very unhealthy and angry at myself for my behavior, but also angry at others because I felt like I was not getting the help I needed.
I was seeking purpose in the wrong places, but then I discovered Christ and understood what it meant to have eternal life in Him.
Now that I have eternal life, I have more control over my emotions, and I do not act out of anger as much.
Ever since I accepted Jesus into my life, I have discovered what it means to practice the Fruit of the Spirit: gentleness. I finally have very tender and kind relationships, and being without so much anger has made my college life a lot more enjoyable because I have various friendships that are enveloped in gentleness and not anger.
I am aware that my salvation does not ensure I will have an easy life, but it is such a blessing to know that if I were to die today, I would be joining God; that is a fact I am sure of.
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