I’ve known about God for as long as I can remember. Some of my earliest memories involve me hearing the Gospel from my parents or sharing it with a family member. I wanted to be a “Christian” at a very young age because I thought it would make my parents happy. I attended church regularly, memorized all the Bible verses and all my friends were from Bible study. 

Although I knew about God, I can’t pretend I took it very seriously until middle school. God used my youth group leaders and several retreats to motivate me to read my Bible daily and consider a personal relationship with Him. 

Since then, my relationship with God has been anything but perfect. When I put my identity in my church community in high school, the church was not faithful to God’s word and did not welcome my family back to the church after a conflict. When I put my identity in my senior year accomplishments, the COVID pandemic took away my opportunities. When I put my identity in friends and fell into alcohol abuse in college, God brought me to a camp that transformed my perspective on what is important in life. He taught me that I need to turn to Him instead of placing my identity in all of these other things. 

A promise I’ve learned to lean on is God’s faithfulness. Even when I am not faithful to following Him, God has still shown His love and faithfulness through really hard things in life. I know that no matter what life brings me, God will always be faithful. This is why I hold on to the words at the beginning of Psalm 46. 

“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.”