Chapter 1: The Basic Story of My Life

This is the short version of my story. Kind of the outline for the rest of the book.

So, this will be the basic story of my life. You could say the short version. In other chapters I will get more in depth with certain parts of my life.

I guess I can start by saying I was born into a Christian family. My mother was not married and my biological father was never a part of my life. Till I was around six years old my mother and I lived with my grandparents; who probably were the most godly people in my life. We moved out when I was about 7 years old when my mom married my step-father Brian; who seemed really nice at first. But, we eventually found out that alcohol controlled his life. My mother tried to break him of his addiction and for a while it worked. He stopped drinking and went to church, but it didn't last long. He was physically, emotionally and verbally abusive to both me and my mom. She eventually divorced him when I was around 11 and two months later he died in an auto accident. At this point in my life I stopped believing in that loving God that my family had taught me about and just did whatever made me feel good. I discovered pornography online, which would eventually become an addiction, and started to have suicide thoughts. I felt so alone. I would look around our church and see these perfect families praising God and then looked at my broken family. I started cutting. Not enough to leave scars; just enough to let some blood out and cause pain. And that would escalate to taking a loaded gun to my head and cocking it. Screaming to God to help me and at that moment I thought of a thousand reasons why I shouldn't kill myself. This was my first encounter will God. I started hanging out with the wrong people and looking to pornography more often to feel happy. My life continued like this till I was about 16 years old and then my mom moved us out to Colorado to marry an old boyfriend. I now was staying in a house with a guy and two kids that I didn't know. At this point my suicide thoughts came back and my porn addiction became stronger. My new step-father also turned out to be abusive; more verbally than physically. So after about 3 months they also divorced. At this point my mom kind of forced me to start going to youth group at our new church. Going to this youth group is what changed my life. Here everyone was broken. I soon started opening up to a couple of the leaders and could feel my life being changed. And one day I listened to the song "Will You Save Me?" By The Birdsongs and it described exactly how I felt. I fell on my knees crying and I asked God into my heart. I started getting involved with the youth group and having meetings with the youth pastor and rebuilding my foundation; this time with Christ as my rock. I have went through my fair share of trials and wake up calls since then, which I will talk more about later, and now I am looking into getting into youth ministry or counseling for a career. Anything to help teens.
So, this is my basic story. I will be writing more in depth about certain parts of my life later on. I hope that in some way this story has helped you.

Reviews

[maria ( rose)]

Hi Erik, I chose this Chapter first thinking it would be a good start to get to know you and a little about your life. I have to say that it was very emotional for me to read. I could feel your pain and hear your screams through out this important message that you described. I have to applaud you for not giving up and keeping the strength and faith. You are an inspiration and helping others is a blessing. Many Blessings to you and I look forward to reading the next Chapter.
-maria rose♥

[Erik Daniel]

Thank you so much Maria! All glory to God that I am even here today!

[maria ( rose)]

your welcome! So true!.. glad to have you here♥

[wordman]

well my friend it will help many,you wrote a brilliant story tragic but you came out of the ashes and I hope you found god it seems he found you glad to be your friend

[Erik Daniel]

Thank you so much man. I wouldn't so much say I found God as he found me. Now that I look back on everything I went through I'm thankful for it. I wish I could have seen back then why he was putting me through all of it. I am also very happy to meet another brother in Christ on here!

[wordman]

I have gone through trials and tribulations for years I hope he is preparing me for something
you can see it in my spiritual writes but only posted a few here

[Erik Daniel]

I'll definitley look into those!

[KWP]

Hey Erik, I feel honored and happy that you have allowed us all to read this. I feel like I know you a lot better now. Not often, due to fear, will people write with such honesty about themselves, well done.
This is a great read, I feel it shows people where you have come from and why and what lessons you have learnt along the way. I also believe that it allows people to see that everyone of us has our own stuff to deal with in our lives, every single one of us....and you my friend are one of the strong abd brave who choose to take life on instead of letting life itslef beat you down.

I know your wish is to help others, I can see in you writing that you will. You are an inspiration! I look forward to reading some more x x

[Erik Daniel]

Thank you so much!

[Tina Louise UK]

You have a strong spirit my friend. I applaud you for sharing your story with us x

[Erik Daniel]

Thank you!

[Imogen.E]

Such a truthful and emotional piece, I love it is much, can't wait to read the next chapter! I'm glad you found a way out of suicidal thoughts. I believe that God saved you. Really really good write :)

[Erik Daniel]

Thank you so much!

[Kelly M.]

I'm already very excited about this... there NEEDS to be more life stories like this! That's what changes people, true, personal stories that aren't artificial. And I love reading/hearing/seeing how God changes people's lives in such crazy ways sometimes!! :)

[Erik Daniel]

Thank you! Hope you like it!

[A. Amos]

I truly am surprised to see so less people have visited to read this one amazing true tale, Eric you're a great story teller and I guess for that reason God made you go through hard times so you can encourage other teens and truth....one of the best writes on WC. Respect my little bro

[Erik Daniel]

Wow. Thank you so much!

[Ren Grace]

You are an emotional writer and your story surprisingly brought comfort to me because I know I'm not alone. I am also forced into youth groups and appointments but its all for good doings. Occasionally I lay awake at night, wondering what makes me so sad and you know... sometimes I can't figure it out and other times I can think a list of reasons. Stories like the one you wrote here speaks to everyone in a different way. Thank you for sharing these personal events from your life because I can tell you with 100% certainty that it will benefit a multitude of your readers.

[Erik Daniel]

Thank you so much! Means a lot!

[Ren Grace]

You're Welcome

[song writer]

Very cool story about saving yourself through the power of god. Right now I can say that I did not have as bad of a trial with my faith as you but I did start losing my faith when I found out about something my dad did to my sister. My faith got even worse when he started to truck drive all over the country. You see I still loved my dad even though he has made really bad decisions. Anyway I hit rock bottom right before going into the grade I am in now I didn't even want to go to church, or to pray, all I had were unanswered questions. Then I made a bad decision. I was hanging out with a friend going down a trail in shorts and flip-flops and she decided she wanted to go down closer to a waterfall that we were going to pass so I decided to go with her to make sure she did not get hurt. There was what looked like a small little drop in the rock that we were on it just looked like I could make it to the ground under it. I told my friend I didn't want her to get hurt and that I would go first. I slide/ fell off of about a 7 to 8 foot high cliff because when I decided to slid down I went to far to the left. The good thing that I think saved me was the ledge I landed on other wise I would have probable died. I thank god everyday for keeping me alive, he was the one who made that ledge that saved my life.Today I still have times where I don't know what to believe anymore but then I look down at my legs see the scars I got and I remember how god saved me. Thank you for sharing and reading my story.

[Erik Daniel]

Amen bro! Praise god you are alive! I still love my step dad too. And I thank God for all these experiences he has given me. They made me who I am today.

[Erik Daniel]

I wrote a poem called Three Words that is about my step dad. You should check it out!

[song writer]

ok thank you

[Linda alexander]

Strong writing skills, fully succeeded to bring the story as complete as possible to readers, you are a charismatic leader who can transform other people to follow the leader, great job, keep writing, those readers benefit from your writing will be thankful to you

[Erik Daniel]

Thank you so much!

[Linda alexander]

You most welcome, take care