I was born into a Christian family who loves me very much. As a child I went to a Catholic school where I learned what a child is expected to learn in elementary school and then some. The fact that I went to a private, Catholic school meant I was exposed to the Lord for my whole residence there. Through nobody's fault but my own I came to regard religion at the same level as reading about some physicist's discovery of a new type of electron or something. The Lord became a source of boredom in my life. Because of this, I did what any young child does, I put myself as far away from this aspect of my life as I could.

As I grew older I realized there was something missing in my life, something I desperately needed. I began to search for what had been eluding me for so long but I found myself just grasping at the false gods of the world. After being let down by these idols so many times, I looked back on my life. I looked back to what I had been taught as a child. I realized that what I needed was God; not money, or friends, or popularity, or the love of another person; I needed the Lord in my life.

So now that I had realized what was missing where did I go from there? My problem was that although I wanted the Lord in my life I wasn't willing to face what it meant to accept him. I was so stuck to my old habits that I wasn't willing to let go. I thought that in order for God to come into my life that I had to change. That was my first mistake. In Ephesians 2:8 it says, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God..." This passage tells us that salvation is a gift from God, to receive it all we must do is accept the gift. It wasn't until I met my girlfriend that I realized this fact.

It was December 31, 2000 when I truly accepted Christ. I was talking with my girlfriends father after church that Sunday and he asked me about my faith. I told him what I have told you about my past. He shared Scripture with me, including Ephesians 2:8, that showed me you are not saved by action but by faith. Ever since that day I have lived for the Lord and my life has been much more pleasant. My friendships stronger, my relationship with my girlfriend more loving than any in my past, and my outlook on life has been one of optimism instead of my old pessimistic views.