I was born In Spring field Oregon. And then lived in Creswell till I went to 1st grade and after I moved I found my 2 best friends Brad and Sam. Sam has always been the little Christian boy that Brad and I would always tell him to skip church because it was lame or we wanted to play video games. But he never would. Sam… he’s my inspiration, He’s the person that I would turn too when I had problems. He was always there, from my bad times to my good ones. He was there when no one else was, even though I hated myself, I hated my home life, heck I even do now.
But when I look at every event in my life… it has purpose. I hated myself up to 8th grade because I had no friends and hated on everyone except a few people. Dylan Lanyon, was always helpful to me, I used to have nowhere to sit because the band people kicked me out of their group after standing up for someone. Dylan let me eat lunch with him, I still remember the days I would start crying during school because my life just sucked. Danny Long knows, him and Rhino Spencer (I love you guys) absolutely hated me with a passion.
My life was at a crash course to never getting better. One day, I wore a shirt that wasn’t ragged old, cheap and untasteless. I put a smile on my face, and got many compliments. I said I want to live my life like this. I changed my whole style to a happier style which I enjoyed freshman year. I made more friends but still was hated and hated myself because of the way I talked to people. I often sat next to Sam because I didn’t think I would have much of an option, I didn’t want to eat alone. But after awhile they got annoyed and I had to find someone. To this day I don’t recall ever finding friends to sit with. My home life was bad, parents divorced, always yelling, cussing, and being physically and mentally bruised, and I wasn’t innocent, I started drinking because it started off with being cool and preparing for college then i started to get addicted to the antidepressant and it made me feel better about my craptastic life, and God saved me from it and to this day i haven’t touched an alcoholic drink without parent consent since January 26th 2009, I fought with my parents and siblings physically and mentally for years I was turning into the outer shell of my father, (abusive, cussing, not caring about anyone) till one day Danny came over and we were fighting and he opened my eyes to what I was truly becoming and I couldn’t stand it that I wanted to attack him but I should have been attacking myself, so that night I prayed long and hard and destroyed parts of that demon out of me.
The last time I fought deeply with my mom I talked to my second mom, Stephanie Kenaston; she gave me a book that I actually never even look at but the fact that she sat there and talked to me was more than enough to say wow, god is working though this woman like a torpedo and its driving my life to the right path. Once my life really took a turn is when I found my old best friend Laina, well me and her became the best of friends and she tried getting me to go out with her sister, that crashed and burned and we are now the best of friends.
My best friend Laina and I were the best of friends what it feels like yesterday. Me and her use to read passages together and it made me be more interested in the word. Ever since then I have been working on being a better person, after wild horse it opened my eyes this is what being a Christian is all about. This is how I should be living every day; I want to make a difference.
Because of my path (cussing out a friend and making him feel low) it was harder to get on the Missions team for Alaska, the story of my life. So I prayed, I prayed I could get on and my life would get better, I could pay for it, I would try my hardiest. Right now, I have great friends and no conflicts, I’m on the Mission’s team for Alaska, I have raised all 1,200 dollars and there’s more to come plus Sam raised his and his family is helping me out a lot.
I would not be who I am today without my friends. You know who you are when I say friends, because God put you in my life and I love all of you. Thanks for always being there because I see God in you every day. He has taught me love, and he has taught all of you, I will exercise my love for everybody because nothing is greater than his love. You should look around at the world and your friends and how they are perfectly set in your life and you cannot say that there is no possible luck in the world that you have them or even that you’re breathing.
After going to youth group so long I realized that it isn’t enough I want to be the full image that God has created for me. I no longer cuss except if it slips once or twice a day. Nothing more; and have tried encouraging my friends to do the same because its an amazing feeling when you don’t cuss, I no longer verbally assault, I no longer physically hit anybody, and I can say that I have really come to mature. There is no specific trial that I’ve gone through that made me closer to the Lord. All of my trials made a path that I can now follow. You can take my story anyway you want but what I am saying is today. God loves you and I do as well.