When I first recieved Christ

My testimony begins with my family. My parents are Christians. They took me and my brother and sisters to church every Sunday. They taught me about the Bible and about Jesus. Their lives are good examples for me because they try to live like Jesus by God's grace.

When I was very young I went to Sunday School each week. One week the teachers asked all the kids if they wanted to have Jesus as their Savior. The Bible says in Romans 3:23 that everyone is a sinner. That is easy to understand. Even children choose to do bad things. When I was a child I stole something from the church and I knew it was wrong. I knew I was a sinner even at a young age. The Bible also says that there is punishment for every sin. That punishment is eternal death. This is also not hard to understand, because even adults are sometimes punished for the wrong they do. But God will punish all sin. On that Sunday when I was young, the teachers told us more. The Bible says that there is good news. God loves us so much that He made a way for us to have eternal life. God sent His son, Jesus, to the earth to take that punishment of death for us. Jesus died so that we don't have to have eternal death. He has saved us from that punishment. All we have to do is believe this to be true and accept Jesus as our Savior and Lord. Then we will have eternal life.

After explaining this, the Sunday school teachers asked us if we wanted to accept Jesus as our Savior. They would pray with whoever wanted to. I didn't tell anyone then because I was shy, but I did want to. Later that night my older sister told my parents that she wanted to accept Jesus. So my parents put me to bed and prayed with my sister. But while I was in bed I decided I wanted to accept Jesus to right at that moment. So I prayed there in my bed by myself. I was only a young girl, but I knew that I was making a very important decision. I was only a child and I didn't understand everything, but I understood that God loves me. I understood that I was a sinner and that I could be punished, and I understood that if I believed in Jesus my sins would be forgiven.

Even now there are many things I don't understand. But even at an old age I still will not understand everything. God has been teaching me more and more about how much He loves me and how Jesus came to free and heal me from my sins and the sins of others. I could share a lot more about my life, the good and the bad, but the most important thing I want to tell you right now is that God loves you and you don't have to do anything to make Him love you. His love is free. When we trust Jesus with our life His love gives us peace, joy, and abundant life.