Growing up, I never really went to church regularly, but was baptized as a baby. I knew who Jesus was and understood that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, but didn’t fully grasp the huge debt that was paid for us at the cross that allows us to have a relationship with God, our Father.

When I was in high school, I started to attend church more regularly, but this was also a time in my life where I felt very lonely. I struggled to find friends that had the same values as me and in general, I just felt that something was missing. I started to put my identity in my grades and my performance and strived for perfection in everything I did. My identity was in how others viewed me and I sought righteousness through my straight-A grades. While this fulfilled me temporarily, overall I was empty and broken inside. I did everything on my own strength, which left me constantly exhausted and incomplete.

Coming into college, I started to have a better understanding that we are all broken people, but despite this, God still loves us. When I surrendered my life to Jesus, I was relieved of a lot the anxiety that I had been feeling all throughout high school, and instead I felt peace knowing that God will always love me even though I am sinful and broken. I have seen my life transform, and have a larger purpose as I have handed the control over my life into the hands of God. My identity instead is found in Him, because He made me perfectly in His image, as his daughter, to glorify His name. God’s love is broad and nothing can separate us from this love.

Romans 8:38-39 “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”