Before Jesus Changed My Life
I grew up in the church when I was younger. I was used to people telling me the cool, exciting stories. I think I believed they were similar to fairy tale movies. I remember thinking the Jesus character was cool. I got baptized in 2018 or 2019, and I don’t think I fully understood the proclamation. Than around 2019, when I was 10, my mother moved my sister and me away from the community I was used to my whole life. A small, close community. We moved from Mediapolis, IA, to Marion, IA. A small town to a town and community. We moved because my mom met a guy, shortly after we moved in with him, they got engaged and married. Before we moved, my mom would never miss a Sunday at church or let my sister or me miss a youth group gathering. Then, once we moved, we tried church for a while, but never got connected to a community. And that led to us as a family not going to church, which than lead to the household not doing anything to honor God. I had a liberal mindset.
How Jesus Changed My Life
When Covid happened, so we were all stuck at home together. And the family aspect became broken. That led to major anxiety and depression, and I became a version of myself that hated myself. Then I became homeschooled, and I was really isolated. With the isolation, the anxiety, and the depression got worse, and I began just looking at all the evil in the world and looking at all the brokenness and all the hate, and that’s just really fueled that anxiety and that depression. I felt unworthy of salvation. And one day, I was so heartbroken. I was just crying all the time, even in the shower. And I remember I was like, ‘Fine. I’ll give this prayer thing a chance for myself, I’ll pray to Jesus.’ And in that prayer, I was just like God, the world is evil. I don’t wanna be here anymore. I remember feeling my tears run down my face, and then they stopped, and I felt so fulfilled then. And after the shower, I went, and I opened my Bible. And I read the gospels because I wanted to meet Jesus, not just hear about him. Reading the gospels pushed me to accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior and follow him.
After accepting Christ, my view of life changed drastically. Instead of thinking that this world is so evil and dark, I began to look for the light throughout the dark. I became optimistic and hopeful about the future, which pushed me to want to tell people about Jesus because he is my personal savior!
My Life After Jesus Saved Me
After accepting Christ, I feel like there were trials along the way, but throughout the trials, I got to see the joy and the beauty and community of the church and opportunities that God put in place and the introductions he made. And after working at a Christian summer camp over the summer of 2025 a couple of my coworkers invited me to their youth group at Veritas and one of the youth pastors, Ian talked at that camp and I really liked his message. So I decided to try Veritas on Wednesday, and I fell in love with the way the messages were told and how they didn’t sugarcoat anything. That inspired me to want to go to the Church service, and so then in the fall, I started attending Sunday services, and then early winter. I started taking classes, and I like to continue taking them. I feel like they're expanding my knowledge and deepening my faith. I gained wisdom through the Word. My connection group has helped me grow so much because it’s a place where I can be real, and I also receive wisdom and truth. I also feel like I can pour that out into the other people, and so I just feel very blessed for the group that God has guided me into. I feel so blessed for the opportunities Christ placed in front of me with telling people about him or helping my friends! Throughout the process of accepting Christ, I’ve noticed myself gaining confidence and meeting and talking with people I probably wouldn’t have in the past.