The New Has Come!

Pamela Alderman said... "How Has Love Changed Your Life?"

With my parent’s separation, my entire life changed. Overnight I lost everything I valued. My father rarely came home; during the day, my mother avoided home. At night, one brother and I would sit in the dark crying.

To cope, I began eating. I would sneak a can of frosting with a spoon and hide them under my bed. Before long, I gained 25 pounds. My food addiction really didn't numb the pain. I only felt more miserable.

For the first time, I began to understand my extreme need for something bigger than myself. With my father gone, the agonizing pain awakened me to a new craving. As a child, I had heard of Jesus Christ. However, it took this family trauma to help me realize that I didn’t know Him.

A couple of months later, I knelt alone in my room and prayed, “Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross and rising from the dead. Please come into my life. And please fix my family.” Through this simple prayer, I traded in a worthless religion for an invaluable relationship.

My father did return home during my high school years. But in my first year of college, he divorced my mother. I hated him for being selfish. He broke my heart.

Apart from Jesus, I discovered that there was no real lasting relief from painful memories and bitterness. Though it took years, He began to lead me gently down a path towards forgiveness. And He helped me begin the process of forgiving, especially my dad.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 2 Corinthians 5:17