As promised yesterday, here is my “five minute faith story.”

Here’s a little background about The Natural Mommy:

In 1982, my mom, dad, and 18 month old brother welcomed me into this world. Two years later, my parents divorced. We moved. Three years later, my mom remarried. My little brother joined us in 1988. Six years later, another divorce. We moved (little brother stayed behind). My mom married again in 2002, just a year before I did, actually.

So, even though it is not an abnormal claim anymore, I still claim instability.

I didn’t grow up wondering what I’d be later in life. I didn’t look at colleges. I had no clue where I’d end up. I was too consumed with the present to bother with the future.

I also had a very angry relationship with my mother. I don’t doubt that she loved me.  But I didn’t respect her. She didn’t trust me. We fought. A lot.

My junior year in high school, she kicked me out. I came home from work to find my belongings in garbage bags in the driveway. My father was there to pick me up.

So I moved to a different city, attended a different high school, and began a new life with a man I had only seen a few Christmases over the past 15 years. If I had previously entertained any notion that I knew what was I doing with my life, that went out the window.

Life with my dad was not easy or fun. There were many unresolved issues that just plain remained unresolved.

(Like why he never bothered to call. Or visit. Or send birthday cards.)

However, my life wasn’t all bad.

I met a boy. I liked him. He liked me. I spent a lot of time with him and his family. He had the family of which I had always dreamed. They were different. A lot of families may throw the word “love” around casually without ever actually backing it up. His family backed it up. When I was there I never wanted to go back home.

And that boyfriend of mine had clear goals for the future. He knew he was going to college. He knew he wanted to be an engineer. He had already picked out colleges and filled out applications and written application essays.

And then he asked me what college I was planning to attend.

College? You mean I have to keep going to school?

Well, he convinced me it was quite worth-while these days to get a college degree. So I applied to the same colleges he did.

While my relationship with that boy grew, my relationship with my father deteriorated. In May of my senior year, he kicked me out.

My boyfriend’s family took me in.

The next fall, that boy and I went off to college together. Since I was simply and shamelessly following him, I ended up at a Christian college. I never would have planned that for myself. Even though I would have told you I was Christian. After all, I wasn’t a rule-breaker. Therefore, I was going to heaven right?

However, that year I learned that Christianity wasn’t about being perfect. It was about realizing your imperfections. It was about realizing Christ’s perfection. And His sacrifice for us that we can be forgiven. Because I also learned that sin isn’t just breaking earthly laws. It is the way we treat ourselves better than our neighbors. It’s the way we think about what we’d like to do to those who hurt us. It’s the way we talk about others in a way that drags them down. And here I’d thought I didn’t need a savior. Turns out I’m a sinner.

That year, I gave my life to Christ. I admitted my sins. I asked for forgiveness. And I finally found the Father for whom I had been searching my entire life. Through prayer, bible studies, and simply sitting back and reflecting on my life, I have learned just who this God is. And just how much He loves me.

He was there when I was two, and every other time my life was turned upside down and inside out. He was there at every turn in the road. He knew I needed Him. He made Himself available in every way He could find. It seems, as I look back, that every move I made brought me closer to Him. I never would have gone to that Christian college if I had not met that boy. And I would never have met that boy if I had not come home from work, that fateful day, to find all my belongings in garbage bags in the driveway.

And, in case you were wondering, I married that boy.

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