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Teen
Revival
The Lord Has Revived
Me, I Can't Help but Share!
By Kalista King
As I was sharing my testimony with someone the other day, I realized
that I have never shared my full testimony on here of how I came to
know Christ as my personal Savior. All my articles are testimonies of
what God is currently doing and what He has done recently. However in
this one, I am going to back up and give you a blast from my past,
leading up to my salvation. Some have said that my life story has been
one of the craziest they have ever heard. Others would say that it
could be much worse. As for me, I am well aware that there are much
crazier life stories out there than mine. Unfortunately many of those
stories do not have a happy ending or good results, but thankfully,
mine does. To save time, I'll begin at age eleven, when my life took a
turn that I never saw coming. This is mainly where my story begins.
It all started out the end of my fifth grade school year. My summer
going into sixth grade was one of the worst summers of my life because
this is the time when my parents got divorced. I was unable to fully
understand the meaning of "divorce" at this age, but I did know that my
father was leaving and would no longer be living in the same house with
us. At this age, my mind could not grasp the fact that my dad was now
absent from our everyday lives. It is safe to say that a void was
created in my heart that day and would remain there for quite some time.
Shortly after my parents got divorced, my mother got remarried, which
landed me with a new step-dad, a younger step-sister, and an older-step
sister. At first, I thought this was going to be an amazing experience
because I had always wanted sisters. I began hanging around my older
step-sister, Faith, because to me, she was "cool." In my eyes, Faith
had it all together. She was pretty, funny, had a great sense of
fashion, and had a lot of friends. Faith was going into her freshman
year of high school when I was entering the sixth grade. She very
quickly got into the party scene, where she began drinking with her
friends on the weekends. These "parties" are very common for teenagers
in high school to participate in. However when it comes to children in
sixth grade, it is not so common. I began going to these parties with
Faith the end of my sixth grade year, where I too began drinking. As
one could imagine, this escalated far more quickly than I had ever
intended. Going into seventh grade, I thought I had life figured out.
Sleeping through school, saving up lunch money during the week,
spending it on booze, and partying all weekend; this was what life was
about.
To me, there was nothing greater than hanging out with my sister and
her older high school friends and getting drunk, without a care in the
world. But by the end of my seventh grade year, partying was not
cutting it. I needed more; something new, something exciting, something
even better than drinking. And indeed, this mentality led to my
experience with drugs. When I started smoking marijuana, I was barely
thirteen-years-old. Back then, in my mind, I could not believe how much
I had been missing out on when it came to smoking pot. This became my
new hobby, my new goal in life. Soon I began to think that the world
now revolved around money and weed. Get money, buy weed, smoke weed,
sell weed, get more money, and repeat the cycle over and over again.
Though getting high was my new joy in life, I did not yet neglect the
weekend parties where I could get trashed and forget about all my
worries for a whole weekend. My life from the end of my seventh grade
year to the end of my eighth grade year consisted of getting high every
day; before school, after school, before bed, and the next morning, as
well as partying every weekend, even Sundays.
It is easy to see that my life was not much of a life, but at the time,
I was not able to see the truth of what my life really was; a train
wreck. And sadly enough, it does not stop there. I got to the point
where I would almost do just about anything to get the high I needed. I
began popping pills my eighth grade year and even got into a
relationship with a drug dealer, which did not exactly help my drug
problems that I already had. All of this started out with me just
wanting to have fun and be "cool" like my older step-sister. However, I
can honestly say the cost of my decisions were not worth all the
trouble I put myself through by getting into drugs and alcohol. And
here is why; what I did not see or neglected to see in this mess I was
in, was that my relationship with my mother had become a complete
disaster because I saw her attempts to protect me from my addictions as
irritating and unnecessary. I had also held such bitterness in my heart
toward my dad that I convinced myself that I hated him and wanted
nothing to do with him. I had pushed away all my friends who were good
influences on me and truly wanted what was best for me. I suffered
eight months of being in a terrible relationship with a guy who
couldn’t have cared less about me. I had fallen so far from who I once
was that I had lost sight of my true self, and I had no idea how to get
back on track.
After countless times of getting caught doing illegal activities by my
parents, going to the hospital for drinking too much, and being
arrested and put on probation, I finally came to a breaking point. One
day, something in me snapped and I awoke to the reality of what I had
been refusing to face all along; my life was an absolute wreck, and I
needed a fix as soon as possible. Now here is when my life takes a turn
for the better. I am not quite sure why or how it happened the way it
did, but I did end up getting the wake-up call I needed to make some
changes in my life. I had been blind for so long and had refused to own
up to my actions and my mistakes. It wasn't until the end of my eighth
grade year that I became very serious about getting back on the right
track and staying clean from drugs and alcohol.
When I told my mom that I was ready to change, she provided an
opportunity for me to go to Lima, Ohio where I was born, and visit
family friends there who had devoted their lives to helping lost
teenagers like me get back on the right track through their Teens for
Christ organization. I was not quite sure what to expect out of my
weekend visit with our old friends, the Sutton family, whom I had not
seen in a very long time. All I knew is that I needed a fix, and I was
ready for it, no matter what it took. By the end of my weekend stay, I
got the start I needed to a better life on the other side of drugs and
alcohol. After various talks I had with people I was around that
weekend in Lima, I decided that when I got home, I was going to get my
new life started and there was no turning back. This is the weekend I
officially gave my life to Christ. It is safe to say that my life has
never been the same since then.
Thankfully, I was able to finally set aside my addictions and begin a
life free of all the things that I mentioned earlier, which used to
weigh me down. I have been able to restore my relationships with both
my parents and have also been blessed with friends who encourage me in
positive ways. I have replaced my ways in which I choose to have fun by
finding positive activities to participate in, instead of the negative
things which held me captive for so long. I have truly discovered the
power of the Lord’s restoration in my life. He has made total beauty
out of ashes. It would be a lie to say that I do not ever struggle with
some of the negative things in which I used to partake in. However, I
am now more free than I have ever been. I am very passionate about
helping other teenagers who are struggling with similar addictions as I
was. It is important for teenagers to find alternative ways to have
fun, rather than drinking, partying, and smoking. It is such a great
pleasure to say that I have discovered there is much more to life than
this. I am eternally thankful that I currently get to experience life
on the other side of my addictions. I am proud to say that I have been
totally clean from drugs and alcohol for almost two full years now and
I would not have it any other way!
Now that you have heard my full testimony up to this point, I hope you
can understand why I am so passionate about this revival. And my
testimony does not stop there. Each article is a testimony of what the
Lord is doing and has done since my salvation. I am only one of the
many teenagers in which the Lord has revived and set free. It is
happening all over Darke County and that is the reason I write these
articles! It brings me great pleasure to be able to share all that God
is doing with you. And thankfully, it is unceasing. If our eyes are
open, we will see that He is at work everywhere around us. Now that my
eyes are open, I see it and I can’t help but share it! I look forward
to telling you more and more of what God is doing here. We are in the
midst of revival, my friends. Stay tuned!
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