Growing up, my family attended church nearly every week, but Christianity never felt like a big part of our lives outside of Sundays. When I was six years old, I told my parents I wanted to be saved, and they prayed a prayer with me. From that point forward, I would have told you I was a believer, but looking back now I see clearly that was not the case. The sins of disobedience to parents and teachers, anger, pride, and selfishness - among many others - were still dominant in my life. I believe the Lord saved me in middle school.

At this time, I was hearing the gospel continually from my pastor, youth pastor, and Sunday school teacher and truly understood how it applied to me personally. God gave me new life, showing me the seriousness of my sin and how desperately in need of a Savior I was. By his grace, I turned away from my sin and turned to Christ for forgiveness, trusting in his perfect life and his sacrifice on the cross in my place. God loved me enough to take my sin and failing upon himself, be killed for my transgression, and be raised to life, defeating sin and death forevermore. My desires began to reflect that of a changed heart, with the sins that plagued me in years past losing their grip on my life, and with my desires starting to be for the things above, such as wanting to attend church, read the Bible on my own, and live a life of obedience to Christ.

As my first step of obedience, I was baptized at my home church at the age of 12. Since that time, the Lord has steadily made me to know him more, growing me in knowledge of his Word and in holiness. The biggest grace God has given to me aside from my salvation was my church home in college. At Cleveland Road Baptist Church in Athens, GA, I was blessed to learn how to deeply study God's Word, how to live life in community, and how to serve him through the church. Though I still fall helplessly short of God's perfect standard, I now look to Christ and the Holy Spirit for strength to follow his commands.