Hey Everyone!
I’m April and I blog at Normandy Heights.
Thank you so much Tonya for allowing me to be a guest on your blog.
I am honored and hope you enjoy!
Experiencing God’s love has been the best gift that I could have ever been given. As a child I was raised in a church and taught to believe in the Bible. During my early teens my family fell apart and the foundation that we stood on was no longer there. It changed my whole life! There was absolute and complete family chaos. So, as a kid I strayed. I truly went from the bright side of life to the dark side. Faced with so many challenges at such a young age, I never lost hope. I would pray every night for God to restore my family and to protect me. At the age of eleven my family quit going to church and living a life of accountability. I have been through so many trials and faced with so many challenges and failed every time. I hit rock bottom as a young adult and God never left my side. Of course I didn’t realize that God was by my side the whole time until recently. I’m not proud of many decisions that I have made in my life, in fact many of those decisions still affect me. But, I know that God has forgiven me and I think him for his grace.
Three years ago I was invited to attend a local church in Southern Illinois. I had no idea that my life would never be the same after walking in those doors that Sunday morning. I had never had a real relationship with God. I would occasionally attend a church, but never felt his true presence, a feeling that can’t be described. I have always believed that there was a God, but to truly experience his power was another story. My desire to learn more about God and the Bible grew stronger each week. It was a huge challenge for my husband and me because we didn’t see eye to eye. He would say he believed but with restrictions.
Things started to change in both of us and our children. I believe going to church on Sunday’s started out as more of a legalistic event and turned into so much more. We no longer dread Sunday morning!!! One of my favorite things that our preacher says is “Stick around here long enough and God is going to get you”. I love it because it is so true. We opened up our hearts to learning and desiring more in this life that God has for us. I’m such a better person for having a relationship with God. I will never be the same and I’m so glad. I think that it has been a very hard road and I know that the life of a Christian isn’t an easy road. Believing that someone died on a cross for our sins is a crazy message to believe, but it happens to be very true. I encourage you all to take that first step to just learn a little bit about the message of the Bible.
Your life will forever be changed!
