This is me (I'm in white) missing the ball while attempting a slide tackle.

This is me missing a frisbee.

I was raised in the church, so throughout elementary and middle school I considered myself a pretty good person because I had never done anything that was very bad. However, as time went on I stopped doing the things that I had been taught in Sunday School. By the time I got to high school, I was selfish and unfriendly so I stuck to myself and didn't make any deep friendships. My self worth was based on what my peers thought about me, and I didn't want to risk looking bad in their eyes. My only source of fun in life was playing soccer and video games. Also, at this time in my life I started looking at pornography and lustfully fantasizing, which caused me to see women as objects and something to give me pleasure. I felt guilty and ashamed because of this, but it did not keep me from secretly continuing to do it.

Because I had been raised in the church, I knew that one day Jesus was coming back to judge the world based on the things we had done. In a general sense, I was a sinner, but I knew that I had stolen in the past, lied, disobeyed my parents and lusted in my heart (just to name a few of the sins I had committed). This scared me because when Jesus did come back, I would have to go to hell because of what I had done.

In my junior year in high school, I turned from the things that I had been doing and turned toward Christ. I asked God to forgive me of my sins and I began to genuinely seek Him with other believers. I still deserved death because of my sins, but God had come down out of heaven as the man of Jesus Christ and the punishment that I deserved, He died in my place. I believe that this is true and I have put my faith and my hope in the fact that Jesus has taken my punishment of death. This is when I became a Christian.

Since then, God has been changing me. I no longer see women as objects, but I now see them as friends, created in the image of God. My security and hope are in God and I care more about what He thinks about me than I do what others think about me. This allows me to be friendly to others and meet knew people, because I know that if they reject me, God will still accept me.

These changes did not happen overnight. It has been a learning process for me of taking risks and possible persecution. After I became a Christian in high school, I was still afraid to tell others about God because I feared what they would think of me. After high school, I went to school at North Carolina State University (NCSU). Once there, I got involved with Grace Community Church - a church that meets on the campus at NCSU. Through their teaching and example they helped me get over some of the fears that I had about telling other people about my faith in Jesus. I'm still learning and growing closer to God. Sometimes I sin and disobey God, but God is faithful and will not forsake me. He will stay with me and help me get closer to Him until Christ returns and I spend eternity with Him. If you have any questions about how you can begin a relationship with Christ, feel free to email me at mbstaple@yahoo.com.