As I was writing my series on dating, I realized most of the people reading my articles have no clue who I am. I was preaching things like abstinence and dating to marry which are radical concepts, and I probably came across as a radical individual. Let me just clarify, I am a radical individual.

But not in the sense where I am some whacko who doesn't understand societal boundaries or cultural norms. I am radical because I have been radically changed by the Gospel, and as I need to be able to present a reason for the hope that I have, this article is about me. My story specifically. It is more accurately described as God's story in me, but that's a different article.

So, here I am. I am making myself knowable to the people reading my work, and my prayer is that God is made knowable through my testimony.

Spoiler alert, I was born. When I was four my parents divorced, however, that wasn't really traumatic because I don't have any memory of them being together. But their divorce is crucial in my story because my life was fragmented into two halves at that point, neither one of them involved church.

When my parents divorced, they got joint custody so I was able to see them both equally, and they also still lived in the same town, so that was an enormous blessing.

However, my mom remarried, and that is where the real trials started coming in my life. She married an abusive alcoholic because we were desperate for a place to stay, but then we were trapped there for six years. He never hit me, but she was his punching bag and I knew what was happening but I couldn't do anything about it. So that kind of sucked. But that was our life for six years.

At my dad's, things were different. My dad didn't remarry until later, so he wore the single dad hat for about six years. And he did an awesome job. My dad is one of the most respectable men I know, and it is because he exhausted himself to raise me right.

He taught me how to handle money at a young age, he got two jobs so we could go do fun things on his weekends and in the summer, and most importantly, he never disrespected my mom in front of me. Their marriage ended in adultery, and even though my dad was bitter with my mom for awhile, he never let me see it.

He let me form my own opinion about my mom, instead of whispering slanders in my ear. I cannot thank him enough for that.

Through all this though, like I've said, I was not in church. I believed in the concept of God, but not a personal God. I believed that a god was real, but not the God of the Bible, because the Bible was a bunch of fairy tales, right?

More on that later. As far as my personality through this time, I was an arrogant jerk who could care less about the people around me because I thought they were all dumb. I would use people and manipulate them simply because I could, and I was on a dark path to being a vile human being.

I was violent and got in numbers of fights for various reasons. All-in-all I would've scored "JERK" on Briggs-Meyers test, but God stepped in.

And that's all for this week folks! Thanks to Shelbi Renaldo, Owner of Shelbi Raines Photography for the amazing photos from Zambia. If you like her pictures, or like yourself in pictures contact her through her website.

As always, my goal is to glorify God in all that I do, and my prayer is that through these writings I am able to help someone find and follow Jesus Christ. Y'all have a good week.