For we live by faith, not by sight. Those words seem simple enough, but walking by faith takes these big leaps.

It is common for all mankind to at least once question the whereabouts of how they came to be. Perhaps even more common than that: what is faith, and who do we put our trust into?

Everyone's walk of faith differs. That's the true beauty of it all. God loved us so much that he sacrificed his only flesh and blood so his people can live and decide for themselves. A sacrifice like that speaks volumes about how little we sacrifice in our daily lives when our Father in Heaven gave it all for us. This is Cindy Centofanti and Jordan Brittain. We're here to tell you our testimonies and our personal walks with God.

"Tokens," by Cynthia W. Centofanti

As a young girl not seeing much deception and corruptness in the world, I blindly put my faith into the world thinking that it was all I would ever need. Although I was enrolled in countless religious private schools across the country, I didn't understand why I felt so empty.

Life continued to speed by, slowing down for no one. Eventually, my life cascaded into adulthood where my eyes were fully open to the world that stood before me. I saw the corruptness — the meaningless motions carried out by thousands of people who yearned to belong to something more.

There was a part of me that questioned why people would continue to choose such aimless things to fill an empty void in their heart.

“Don't these people understand that nothing lasts forever?”

I was a 19-year-old with a mindset that had already been touched by the world. I had made my choice to let society shape their ideal image as a young woman.

I never had the chance to understand that I was already perfect and deserving a place to exist in this world. I always had that opportunity from the moment I was born. This is all because of some man that died for all of our sins. That man is our savior. He is our God who loves us regardless of what others or society thinks. It took me almost a quarter of my life to fully and truly experience the love that God has always wanted to show to me.

As soon as I started to put faith into God after such a long time period of turning away from his desire to show me love, I lost someone — someone who I loved very much, my mother. My first reaction when she passed away was rage. Unbelievable amounts of nothing but fiery anger. I couldn't fathom why after so many years of coexisting with others in this world, why did it have to be me to lose the one and only thing that I held so dear and close to my heart?

My first couple of steps that I had initially started taking on my walk of faith had suddenly disappeared. It's like that saying, “One step forward, two steps back." All of my progress that I had made vanished and all that was left was anger towards the God who was supposed to shelter me from all of the hurt and sadness in the world. My anger had slowly burned to nothing more than an ember and soon fizzled out completely. There was only a vast black hole that laid where my heart had once existed. My heart no longer had room for any emotion.

It was a dark place for a very long time.

I, like many others have done before me, eventually came to terms with my emptiness and wanted something more. I finally came to acceptance at that certain point in my life, threw my hands up in the air and surrendered. The truth was I couldn't go through the daily motions on my own anymore — I was too weak and spent too much energy resisting God rather than accepting him.

As soon as I let God take the wheel in my life, I realized a change in my that wouldn't have been possible without him. I learned to love myself again and how to let go of my painful past and let go of everything that was hindering my happiness. I found the strength to stand up on my own two feet and stand up for what I believe in.

God in his own way gave me the closure that was necessary in my life to forgive and forget. Sure, you can try to accomplish a life on your own, but I guarantee you will never be able to fully experience all of the bliss that this life holds if you don't reach out and grab God's hand which has always been extended to you.

I am a walking definition of someone who struggled with their walk of faith, but it taught me a valuable lesson that perhaps story books and Bible verses can't explain. God loved us so much to the point of where as mentioned earlier, sacrificed his own flesh and blood of his son so we could walk this earth freely and independent. We are all unique and beautiful in the way that God intended for us to be. Regardless of what society may tell you, you are already beautiful and accepted by the Lord.

Since we are all unique and different, that means each one of our walks with God will be as well. There isn't a perfect way of accepting him; all that matters is that you put your faith in him. It is so crucial to be in fellowship with those who encourage your faith rather than discourage. This is why we must be kind to everyone, for we are all fighting our own battles internally and should not judge others based off of that.

My mother, although long passed, had faith up until her last day. Every time she would check into a recovery center she would receive a token. A token that represented her commitment to staying sober. Although God had bigger plans for her in heaven, I was left with hundreds of recovery tokens from every time she relapsed. The verse that it is stamped on the back of the token now serves its purpose as my life verse.

"Washed Away," by Jordan Belle Brittain

Hello world, I want to tell you a little bit about my story and how I came to know God. I grew up in church, and I didn’t fully understand who God was when I was a little girl. I remember one night I went to church with my mom when I was eight, and we said the prayer of salvation together. I firmly believe I was saved then; however as I grew older, I had more questions.

I was so young that everything hadn't “clicked” yet. In middle school, I became anorexic. I was bullied for being “overweight.” I began to try to “fit in” with the cool crowd and was just really lost in life. Every Sunday I went to my Sunday school class, and I started to just ask my teacher questions. As I started learning more, I became more aware of who God was. I had a gymnastics teacher who would also tell us how good God is.

At the beginning of my 8th grade year, I started going to the youth nights on Wednesdays. I distinctly remember the preacher talking about the essence of sin. I remember him explaining to us that sin makes us dead. He gave an illustration. In the illustration, he brought out tons of products, such as deodorant, perfume, cologne, hand sanitizer and body spray. Those products represent us when we try to cover up our mess and our sin. We try to put on a show that everything is OK and that we are fine when in reality, we are stained.

We have all sinned and all of those sins we have committed in our lives are what makes us dead (James 1:15). However, that’s not the end of the story.

God sent His son Jesus into the world to save us from those sins that make us dead, and Jesus makes us come alive (John 3:17). Though our bodies will die at some point, our souls will live for all eternity with Jesus because he paid for our sins. You see God is set apart from us, He is Holy and perfect. Therefore, sin separates us from God. However, because of Jesus we are able to approach God. Therefore, we are presented holy and blameless in the presence of God, because God sees His son Jesus in us.

“Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.” — Ephesians 1:4

So that night as I went home, I processed what had just been spoken. When I went to bed, I prayed and asked Jesus to forgive me of all of the sin that I had committed and all the sin that I would commit later on in my life (because I knew I wasn’t going to be perfect). Since we are still humans we will still make mistakes, but my pastor Louie Giglio pointed out: “we can sin less.” Since we have Jesus we can sin less. The next morning after the night that I had prayed, I felt like a brand new person. I felt like the weight of the world had just come off my shoulders. My old self had been washed away, and I was a new creation, a new person in Christ.

Though my journey since 8th grade has by no means been perfect, I have progressed. I stopped being anorexic, and I started eating again and working out. I never went to a clinic to get help. God simply helped me on His own. Jesus works on us. It is a process. Everyday Jesus is working on us to be more and more like him.

“And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” — James 1:4

"Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." — Philippians 1:6