My Story, Pt. 2

This is part 2 of my story. You can find part 1 here.

Part 2: Encountering God

In middle school, I began to encounter God. He began to walk with me through my life, and began to bring people into my life who breathed truth and hope into my circumstances. My world was in continual chaos, and I fought with the idea of suicide and death a lot, but I knew God did not want that, and so I managed to avoid it. It wasn't an option for me because murdering was wrong, and suicide was self-murder. Thankfully, that fear that doing things wrong would send me to hell kept me alive.

Things in my world got even more chaotic as I got older. My dad married my step-mom and that began a very tumultuous relationship, with fights and break-ups happening constantly. I was treated as the "go-between" between my parents, and they would get angry at me if I was forced to deliver a message that they did not like from my other parent. My father was also diagnosed as bipolar. By the time I as in high school, he did not have a steady place to live, and I was not seeing him more than every other weekend. But since no one would stand up to him, he often randomly appeared, demanded that I see him for the weekend, and I had to cancel any plans I had.

As a sophomore, I started attending my church, and as a junior I went to a teen girl's event called "The Revolve Tour". At that event, I finally listened to the message that God loves me. Through a series of situations where He confirmed that He was there for me and on my side, I truly began to whole-heartedly follow Him.

I was baptized about a year later, and my life began to change.

To be continued...

You can find part 3 here.