Jesus Saved My Life!

I am Glad that I have eternal Life because I know that no matter how bad things can get God is right there with me and He will never leave me.

I was born into a Christian family and raised in a small town in Indiana. When I was little, I was in church regularly. I was baptized at an early age, around 8 or 9, but I didn’t fully understand what that meant. I knew that I wanted to have eternal life in heaven with Jesus, but I didn’t realize that meant a lifestyle change as well. I just thought “I said the words and got dunked I must be good to go!”. As I started to grow up and got into high school, I was a very average athlete, able to start varsity but not play at the next level. Looking back now I realize that sports were always held at a higher priority than God. I would be a part of FCA (fellowship of Christian Athletes) and partake in several devotionals with my sports teams. While at the same time sneaking out and partying, drinking, and being sexually active. When I graduated high school, I joined the Marine Corps. I went to boot camp a month after graduating high school. This is where I learned one of my most important lessons about God, He is the one who truly gave me the strength to get though the most challenging time of my life. Psalms 121:1-2 “I lift my eyes to the mountains. Where does my help come from? It comes from the Lord maker of heaven and earth.”. Through constant prayer and nightly devotionals with my newfound brothers, I was always able to make it to the next day. I graduated boot camp as a squad leader and was off to a good start in my Marine Corps career. Once out of boot camp and doing my job in the Marine Corps I began drinking much more heavily. I became a textbook definition of a functioning alcoholic. I was drinking anywhere from 3–5-quart bottles of whiskey a week and regularly getting black out drunk then working the next day. I married an atheist woman who was against Christianity. At this point in my life, I had basically walked away from God saying, “I don’t need you I can handle this on my own!”. After my four-year enlistment I decided to leave the Marine Corps. I moved to Tennessee and almost immediately got divorced. I lived out in the middle of no-where and hit a very low point in my life. To be entirely honest if it weren’t for my beautiful dogs, I don’t know that I would have made it through that time in my life. While at work I was speaking with a coworker of mine and explaining how I haven’t been doing so great he suggested that I try and go to this crazy church down the road that’s in a mall. WOW did they truly save me. I began to quickly make friends. I became a youth group leader and developed relationships that will last a lifetime. Change doesn’t always happen quickly, although my emotional / social life got better I was still drinking heavily. It was at this church I finally realized that part of developing a relationship with God is a desire to improve yourself. I learned that the grace that God gives us by always forgiving us isn’t just a free pass to sin then ask for forgiveness afterward, to repent means to turn away. Shortly after finding this church, I found most beautiful woman in the world and fell madly in love with her. After much courting and begging we get married in the spring of 2020. My wife becomes pregnant around August of that same year. On September 14 we find out that we had a miscarriage. My wife and I go through an extremely dark time of our lives filled with depression and frustration. Trying to figure out why God would do something like this to us. Fortunately, we decided to fall in on each other and during this dark time grow closer to each other than I could have ever imagined two people could. We also put our sorrow on God. We continued to praise God for all the amazing things we did have (a roof over our heads, good jobs, our family, and pets, Etc.) Shortly after this I get baptized again with a full understanding of what it means to be a follower and disciple of God. As I am working at the job I work at currently I travel a lot for work and wind up getting covid in Jan of 2021. During my two weeks at home for quarantine my wife and I break the rules and she ends up pregnant again. When we go to the first doctor’s appointment, we found out that not only is she pregnant, but we were going to be expecting twins! After thanking the Lord for this amazing blessing my very next thought was “How in the world would I afford this?!”. We were very excited for our new babies but in our excitement was always the fear of another miscarriage. On September 14 of 2021 my wife was 35 weeks pregnant, and those babies decided they were coming whether we were ready or not. After about 5 hours of labor and waiting for my wife to dilate the doctor on duty decided it was time to move forward with an emergency C-section. All went great and according to plan and on September 15, 2021, I was the father to “two fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalms 139:14) baby girls! Exactly 1 year after the miscarriage. I am now to the point where I rarely drink and when I do it is only socially. Maybe own or two throughout the evening and I am continually striving towards a closer walk with Jesus.

I feel Gods presence everyday and I know he is with me, will help me through anything, and that I have the amazing gift of eternal life with him.