My Testimony - for a certain person who wanted it on here. Here ya go. I heart you.

At age 7 I prayed with my mom and asked Jesus to come into my heart. I was raised in what I would call a christian home, always went to church, prayed before meals and bedtime, tried to do the right thing, and my mom listened to sermons and christian music in the car and on "clean the house day." When I was around 12 my parents left the methodist church we had always gone to and went to a non-denominational church. During my middle and beginning of high school years I went through stages of "being on fire for God" and would do quiet times, be involved in youth group, and go on retreats. When it came to living in the world I pretty much did, but didn't do the "big" sins like cussing, sex, drugs, talking bad about people (too much). As I look back I see that I mostly lived as a performance christian and didn't really understand why I was to not do certain things. In junior year of high school I started dating a guy and we dated for over 4 years. My parents stopped going to church around that time and so did I. Although I still thought of myself as a christian I was living more and more in the world. Soon my whole life revolved around this guy and how he could make me happy. I started working at Ruby Tuesday around the time I started college and I met an amazing person whom I will call J.J. :). J.J. and I became fast friends. We called each other our christian friend because the atmosphere at that restaurant was horrible with a lot of negative attitudes and language. But the thing about this christian friend was that she actually talked about God, whereas I didn't talk about God or talk about living for God even though I called myself a christian. It was very different for me and made me start to really think. Things began to change from there. I met a guy at Ruby's that was fun and broke up with my boyfriend to date him. It was good for me to get out of the current relationship but dating the other guy was a horrible decision. I also began my first real SLP classses and made some new friends that I would go out to the bars with. I had a group of friends from high school but when I broke up with my boyfriend from highshcool I lost all of them. My whole life was chaos and going down hill. But God was faithful. Throughout the chaos I became better and better friends with J.J. I went to church with her a little at WPC and I met her friends. My flesh and spirit were fighting each other during the time right after I broke up with Patrick and dated the other guy. I know they always are but this was a really big fight between me turning to the world for my satisfaction or turning to God for my satisfacgtion. This went on for about 6 to 7 months afterward. After the guy that I dated from Ruby Tuesday broke up with me I was devastated. I clung to J.J. and her group of friends. I went to church more often. I became curious about things and then began to crave more knowledge about Christ. For about a year a half after that I continued to grow and slowly (too slowly) turn away from the things I knew were wrong. I became involved at Westminster and in bible studies. Last year (2007) right before Thanksgiving something changed inside of me. Rather God changed my heart. He had been working on my heart for a long time but I guess He finally said "OK Shannon it's time you get serious" because although I had been going to church, getting in the word, fellowshiping with brothers and sisters, I had also continued to live in sin and tried to find satisfaction in guys, alcohol, friends, and doing good in school. M.H. is another amazing friend that God placed in my life and used to help trigger this desire in me. She and I started graduate school together and she also began coming to WPC, so we became friends and spent a lot of time together. Seeing how she always put God first even in schoolwork (and the first semester of graduate school was hard!) really had an impact on me. A couple days before thanksgiving I went to the park with D&A (also wonderful friends that I love dearly). It was a beautiful day and we laid on blankets and just read. I felt emotional and very stressed out about life. I began writing in my journal to God. I told Him I wanted to be His and didn't want to keep living the way I was. During that first semester of graduate school I was doing the school thing and working as a graduate assistant. I had no time for anything except school and work. That day in the park, I made the decision (and it was hard b/c I was giving up a lot of money) to not work anymore. I talked to A&D and told them my heart. I wanted to live for God and that was the day I got really serious about it. That was the day I surrendered all. That is also the day I met C.W. for the first time ever ;) God is so cool.

The hardest thing for me about sharing my testimony is that I don't know exactly when I became a christian. But always after sharing it, I am amazed at God's grace and what He brought me through. I know I am saved and not matter when it actually happened, it is a wonderful feeling to know that I am no longer dead in my sin but alive in Christ.

Thank you Father for choosing me.