I gave my life to Jesus when I was sixteen years old. I was a teenage mom with a son. Growing up, my family was the type of family that only attended church on special holidays. So, at that time, I had not been truly discipled as to the point of knowing what having a real relationship with God was.
In my late twenties, during the darkest time of my life, I felt the tug of God to come back to Him. At that time, I was a single mom loving and taking care of three beautiful children. So much had happened in my life up to that point.
I was not happy with my life. I was lonely, looking to be loved and accepted. I was promiscuous. Clubbing and drinking on the weekend were some things I did to feel as if I belonged to something.
Trigger warning:
My life was loaded with a lot of guilt, condemnation, and shame. I had made sooo many wrong decisions. So many mistakes. The weight of it all left me wanting to die. I didn’t ever want to take my life. I just wished somehow my life would end. Yet, at the same time, I held on by a thread of hope that something about my life could change for the better.
The chase for Jesus began.
As I said before, in my late twenties, I felt the tug of God on my heart to return back to Him. At this particular time in my life, I had the opportunity to attend church on Sunday’s. I gathered my little family, and we went.
Enough seed of the message of God had been planted to cause a stir in my heart for salvation. I wanted it. And after warring in my mind and telling God that I was not ready to give up the club life, I gave my life back to Jesus. I have been chasing Him ever since.
In Him is where I found life.
I began spending time with God, rising early to worship Him and read His Word. In doing so, He began to open my understanding to the life He was calling me to live. I understood that He had called me to leave the old life I once knew behind. With knowledge of that, I began aligning my life and the lives of my children according to His Word.
To my surprise, everything about my life had changed. For.the.best. In aligning my life with God’s will, I didn’t lose life. I found life. Giving my life to Christ was the best decision I have ever made. Where I had once been lost in my life, He found me. Where I was once blind to seeing a better way, He opened my eyes to see that He was and is the Way.
In His truth, I now live freely.
Life in Christ took on a whole new meaning for me. I wish that I could say that I recognized right away the true life of freedom Jesus had died to give me. I didn’t. There were a lot of wrongs about my thinking that had to be made right. I had a lot of wounds that had to be healed. It took me yielding to the power of His Holy Spirit for it to happen. I had to let Him do a work in me.
Prayerfully, when I did, life in Christ brought order to my chaos, peace to my storms, and a freedom I would not have ever known without Him. I’ve found joy in no longer making a mess of my life, but letting it be refined by God and His Word. Freedom.
Meet my family.
Together, my husband Carlos and I are a blended family. We have been together for 16 years. Married for 15 years. Altogether, we are the blessed parents of four boys, two girls, and a lovely daughter-in-love. We are also the blessed grandparents of three beautiful grandchildren, two of which are heaven-bound. I share more about our beginning here.
What are my interests?
- Jesus… I love Jesus!
- I sing.
- I write.
- I create.
- I love to read.
- Cosmetology. I’m a cosmetologist!
- I looove shoes!
- And what’s a girl without a fashionable purse?
Interested in knowing a little more about me? I share more random facts here.
ERICA DUNOMES 