Satan's Temptations.

If you don't already know , I'm a courtesy clerk at Smith's. A Courtesy Clerk, is basically just a fancy name for a bagger. So I'm on way to work, just like any other day. I get there around 8:00 am. I was already in a bad mood due to the lack of sleep I got the night before. I'm standing at the end of the check stand bagging this lady's groceries. I started to bag her wine that she had bought. I intended to double bag it, but instead of doing that the dropped right through the plastic. I had put two bottles in there, yet only one fell through. I just stood there thinking to myself, I guess this is what my day is going to look like. The day pretty much dragged on from there. Until later that afternoon, I was collecting all the carts from the parking lot like I normally do, and I came across a random pouch. Just sitting there in the cart. It said it belonged to one of the banks in the store, automatically I thought, well there should be money in there. Right? I mean this kind of thing doesn't really happen to me. I don't just find random money everywhere. I figured there would be receipts of some kind in there. I opened it, and sure enough there was maybe over 500 dollars in there. My mouth dropped open. At the moment I was pretty much broke. I was paying for soda in dimes. That's how broke I was. temptation washed over me. I knew it would be wrong to just take the money. I could lose my job. I went back into the store and showed one of my co-workers Cody.  I came up to him " Guess what I

 found?" he was just as shocked as I was. But I was a little taken aback when he said I should keep it.  I felt like I had an Angel on one of my shoulders and the Devil on the other. Trying to connivence me to make the right decision. I made the right one of course. I went up to my boss, and told him I found all this money. He returned it. I found out later who it belonged to. Apparently it was one of the employees that work at the Deli. As I was getting ready to clock out and head home. My boss came up to me and gave me a Smith's coupon. I felt like I won  a million dollars. Seriously."Thank you for your honesty" he said. I felt good. I'd rather feel good about my good deed than guilty for taking that money. But we all have those temptations. Don't we? If you don't then your obviously not human. Us teenagers get pressured into sex, drugs, and violence. I feel that's Satan's doing. Today I felt like God gave me strength to make the right choice. I would have to say sex being the most tempting. Mostly because in high school, it feels like everyone is doing it. There's also the silly temptations, that we feel pretty much everyday. For example your on this hardcore diet, and your best friend is eating a strawberry cheesecake right in front of you. Temptation? I think yes. But my point is, there's temptation everywhere. We all fall into the deep end, one way or another.  We just always have to remember to get back on our feet and make the right choices in life. Even I have fallen into temptation. I'm not perfect. But I know God will never judge me for the things I have done wrong in my past.  God always forgives.

My Relationship With Jesus Christ...

I never saw myself as a "Jesus Follower". All my life growing up I was never exposed to religious beliefs or church for that matter. I didn't grow up with a religious family like some people. The idea of him never really leaped into my head. Throughout the years, I've faced some unnecessary family drama. Who hasn't? But to me as a teenager the world just felt as if it was falling apart from the tips of my fingers. As a teenager there's only so much you can do. At that moment I felt so vulnerable. My family was falling apart. As the years grew on I learned to forget about it. Move on. But then it happened again. The alcohol took control again. That same feeling of being so vulnerable washed over me again like a ton of bricks. At the time that this all happened I had been going to church every Sunday. But that's all I was doing "going" to church. I didn't feel as if it meant anything to me. It was just, well church. But at the moment where everything was falling apart. I prayed. I'm not the type to pray everyday to god. But at the moment I did. I walked away from all the drama. I took a few moments to myself. Took a few deep breaths, and spoke to HIM. For the first time I actually felt like I was talking to HIM. It had been just weeks since that night, and I already felt like God was answering my prayers. The alcohol that had taken over that night was long gone. Vanished. And it hasn't come near me nor my family for over 4 months now. And I hope to God that it never comes back. Later throughout the year one of my good friends showed me a Church Camp that was happening in the next month. The first time I had ever went to a Church Camp was back in February. I didn't know what to think. all I could think was all of these kids worshiping Jesus. I felt really uncomfortable. It was my first time EVER experiencing something like that. After that I went to church every Sunday if I could, trying to feel what everybody else felt. That connection with god. I chased after that for months and grew frustrated with myself because I couldn't find it. I felt like I was in a different world. I just felt lost. But When my friend showed me this other camp that was happening in the next month, called IGNITE, I was truly excited. This was my chance to grow a relationship with Jesus Christ. We counted down the days. And when that day finally came, and I arrived at the Church. Something inside me grew hesitant. I ignored it. The camp was 5 days and throughout those five days, that hesitant feeling ceased to exist. I felt so close to god that it almost scared me to be so close to him. Then, on the last day of IGNITE we had our last session worshiping Jesus. We were all grouped together in front of the stage, as the band sang. And I realized at that moment that Jesus has always been with me. Even if I felt he was totally nonexistent. He was always been there for me. Going to that camp has really changed my perspective of things. I can now say I have a relationship with Jesus. And that relationship is only going to grow and become the most lively thing there is. For the first time ever I actually experienced what everybody was always talking about. I felt his love