The path of life.....

I gave my testimony last night at the Festival of Life our church held last night. I thought I'd post it here too in case it helps anyone. I was raised in a church and learned a lot about the Bible and God, but never knew God. I learned all the right things to do and did them if they didn't cramp my style too much. I spent most of my time doing what I wanted to do and pushing the limits just enough to not get caught. I lived most of my life that way. As a young adult I was cautiously promiscuous and drank heavily and often. I did that until I started waking up not knowing how I got home. That scared me into quiting that. At age 21 I married my first husband. After about four years it wasn't going like I wanted and thought for sure God wouldn't want me miserable all my life, so I divorced him. At 25 I married who I thought was perfect. We were a lot alike and about four years later, he didn't want to be married anymore and we divorced. I was devastated. I had made a real mess of my life doing things my way. I thought if I got back into church God would like me again and have good things happen so I joined the closest church I could find. They had a policy of making sure their members knew God personally, so they sent a couple of people to visit me. They asked me if I died tonight did I know for sure if I would go to heaven or not. That threw me for a loop because I didn't think about that a lot. So I thought about it and hoped that my bad things I knew I did didn't outweigh the good things I had done. I told them I didn't know. So they talked with me and I came to realize that I had been living all my life to please myself and to satisfy my will. I knew I had made myself and people I loved miserable. I decided then that I would accept Jesus as my Savior and live my life following God's will and plan for my life. There's a Bible verse that says if we confess our sins God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins AND cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's what He did for me that night. He cleansed me and I felt a great burden lifted off of me and all the guilt I'd carried for years fell away. I felt renewed and knew I was different. That's been almost 30 years ago. Since then I have remarried to a wonderful Christian man and have 3 wonderful grown children. I'd like to say it's been all fun and games but it hasn't. Life keeps happening. We've had our share of marital problems, parenting problems, financial problems and health problems. But the difference is how I've handled these situations. This time I saw life from God's perspective and handled things God's way. Now in life I have God's wisdom, and Word, strength, peace and joy to face each situation. Psalm 16:11 describes my life in God now: "You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy, at your right hand are pleasures forevermore."