My Life, My Story…

Growing up, I was a high achieving perfectionist who always got the best grades and wouldn’t settle for anything less. I was raised to believe in God, however He was nothing more than a comforting concept for me.

I began training as a ballerina from the age of 5 and when I began training full time at the age of 11 my desire for perfection and attention led me down a dangerous path of eating disorders, depression and drinking. No matter how hard I tried, I was never ‘good enough’ or ‘skinny enough’ and my self-esteem gradually ran completely dry.

When I reached my lowest point, my sister invited me to attend church with her. In my first service God spoke directly to me through the sermon saying, ‘I love you and I missed you. I’m so glad you came here today.’ Even though I started to attend church regularly, I still couldn’t resolve my fundamental problem and I continued to live in a meaningless way. I planned my baptism for the night after a party, so I rocked up to church hung-over in an attempt to dedicate my life to God. As I was being prayed over, the Holy Trinity spoke through the Pastor and told me that my entire life would change and that my old self would be gone.

This marked the beginning of my true journey towards God.

Church has taught me the reality of just how much God loves me; I felt God’s love in reality through receiving endless support, care and prayer. I realized that I am precious, valuable and a king of individuality. I learned that I don’t need to compare myself to others because God has blessed me with unique talents and personality. I even changed my perspective on life through learning clearly about the purpose of my existence.

Now that I can work towards an unimaginably valuable eternal purpose of loving God with all of my heart, life is truly joyful. I learnt that it doesn’t matter if I can’t do everything perfectly because all God wants is my earnest and sincere love.

The Word of God that I learned saved me from the dangerous path I was on and brought me out to the path of life, blessings, joy and love. For this I am eternally grateful.

-L.M.