Student Voice

Jesus Story
Dec 4, 05:33 PM
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When I was 12, I trusted in Jesus and realized I needed him in my life. Unfortunately, I didn’t stay on the path that He had for me. I turned to drinking, boys, and proving my intelligence to everyone. To adults, I was a “good kid” (good grades, lots of friends, involved in sports). I did a good job at hiding my real life so that people wouldn’t know how screwed up I was. I felt so messed up inside, but I didn’t know what to do about it. I still went to church every Sunday with my mom, and while I was there it was great, but I didn’t know Jesus outside of a Sunday service.

When I went away to college, I decided that I wanted to find a good church in Mt. Pleasant. There was a part of me that knew it was the right thing to do, even though I wasn’t living a very godly lifestyle. So Mark (my husband, but boyfriend at the time) and I tried a few churches. At this point, Mark was not a Christian, but had two very good Christian friends. Both Mark and I are very academic and competitive, so when he started reading the Bible to know more than his friends, I started reading it to know more than Mark. Looking back, this wasn’t a good reason to get interested in God, but God is gracious and used it. While reading my Bible and going to Grace church, I started to care about God more than just on Sundays. He started becoming more and more important to me. Now I know that God is the center of everything and I truly desire to stay on the path that he has laid out for me. I’ve tried doing things on my own, and it only leads to disappointment.

Don’t get me wrong, following Jesus doesn’t mean your life is a bowl of cherries. There are still struggles and hard choices to make. One thing that I have been struggling with is letting people get to know the real me. I hid behind a fake “perfect child” life for so long that it is hard to let people know that I screw up sometimes. We ALL screw up sometimes. The good news is that God knows how much of a screw up I am and He loves me anyway! God is someone I can be completely honest with all the time and he will never turn away, or stop being my friend. I don’t know about you, but I find that very comforting.

— Jamie Mallia


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