He Changed Me

Proverbs 22:6 “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.”

 

All of my childhood days were spent being raised in a Christian home, attending church several times a week, participating in youth activities, and being surrounded by the teachings of God. I was even baptized at a young age, knowing what I was doing, but not fully grasping the concept of giving my life over to Jesus. I remember crying before service started that day but was unsure why. A young kid doing what my parents and youth pastor told me was the “right thing” to do.

 

I attended church EVERY Sunday for the first 18 years of my life. Not because I ‘chose to’ but because my parents made me go. By the time I got to junior high I began to think church wasn’t everything my parents made it out to be and began my road of rebellion. Satan led me away on a path to destruction and I was blinded from the very beginning. It all started with small things as a teen wanting to be “cool”, by my peers standards, not concerned with what God’s view of it was. I started off on a path of destruction with ‘minor’ things such as sneaking out and smoking cigars and cigarettes with friends AT CHURCH! From there we moved on to getting high and smoking weed. “It was all harmless, my parents didn’t know and Boy was it COOL!”

 

Proverbs 13:20 “He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.” 

 

Early years of high school I began to hang out more with my friends from school. I got even more involved with getting high, drinking, partying, sex, everything BUT what my parents had raised me to do. I honestly was having a “good time” (or so I thought).

 

Upon graduating high school I wanted nothing more than to get away from my parents and “enjoy” the new lifestyle I had fallen into. I chose to move away and attend my freshmen year of college at Ohio University (aka “Party University”). My freshmen year of college I did just that! Partied, drank, partied, partied, drank, partied, then rested up to do it all over again! One full year of no parents and doing whatever I wanted! Life was Great! Came home for the summer and continued partying all summer with some friends who rented a house. “The House” (as it became known as) was the place that we spent nearly every night of the week partying at and drinking til the sun came up. After spending the entire summer home with friends from high school I decided to transfer home, go to U.C., and move into “The House”. I had fully given my life over to partying, alcohol, girls, sex, and “Living Life to the Fullest” (as the world puts it at least). The partying lifestyle soon moved to the ‘club scene’ where girls, dancing, and drugs were plentiful. This is where I was introduced to a new ‘high’ known as Ecstacy. For only $25 a pill I could take it in ten seconds or less and feel like life was the BEST thing Ever! Feelings of happiness, content, joy, satisfaction, worry free, all while having a blast doing it! Every Thursday for months straight I would take a hit or two of ecstacy, enjoy it for a few hours, then dread the feeling of ‘coming off the roll’ when it was all over. 

 

Matthew 7:13-14  

"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.