Being the last of five children, I always felt left out. I have great parents, but they just weren't involved as I thought they should have been in my childhood. Both of them had full agendas. I always looked at my dad like a full-time soldier, “work first” kind of man. I had a wonderful grandmother to lean on, but she passed away, leaving me with an even greater sense of abandonment. I knew I couldn’t trust my family to be there, so I turned to what I saw worked for others: drugs, drinking, partying, ‘living the life.’ It started as a party, then it became a job. I was bad off on cocaine and alcohol. My life was one of strife and chaos, then one day God said ‘stop.’ I had just left a party when I blacked out and wrecked my car. It took a tragedy to turn this ‘mess’ into a message. Today, I know that God’s always there because his word tells me he’ll never leave me. I don’t have to make an appointment to share my feelings with him – I know I can talk with him in prayer.

Praise God because he holds my trust, my best interest, and my life in his hands. There’s no love like God’s love.