The life and trials of a growing Christian- day two

As the title states, this is day two of my blogging experience. I guess the first thing I should do is explain why I decided to call myself Brianfool. The book of Psalms says in 14:1a The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." That used to be me. I did everything I could to reject and run away from God, and it worked for a long time. But now I have become a fool for the Lord. He brought me out of the abyss of sin and the Devil's works, and for that I am eternally grateful. AMEN! One of my main goals in this year long blogging excursion is to bring people to Christ. I hope that I can do that, not for any glory of my own but to glorify Jesus. I hope that this will also draw me closer to Him and teach me a lot more about my own strengths and weaknesses. The bible says that we all have spiritual gifts and I hope that this experience will help me to find mine. Someone told me about a year ago that I would do great things for the Lord, and I hope that this is the start of that. I just want to do something!

The life and trials of a growing Christian

Hi, my name is Brian, I'm 38 and happily married with a 16 year old daughter and a 3 year old son. I have decided to do this blog (hopefully everyday) for a year. I'm not quite sure what I'm trying to accomplish with this but hopefully it'll be pretty cool. I guess I'll tell you a little about myself today and tomorrow I will start writing about whatever thoughts and experiences I'm lead to share. When I was a young child my grandmother took me to church every time she could and I loved it, but alas, I turned 12 and decided that God wasn't where it was at. I was already drinking and smoking and decided that a little weed wouldn't hurt either. A little turned into a lot and the occasional drinking excursion turned into every time I could get my lips around a bottle. I got kicked out of school and went to Job Corps where I went into instant culture shock. There were a lot of people who were put there by the courts as an option to jail or military. I took the easiest class I could so I could get out quick. I also got my license and my GED. When I turned 20 I got married and we immediately got pregnant. (while we dated I insisted that she have an abortion because I didn't know if the child was mine or not. I would come to regret this decision in later life.) We bought a house (against my better judgement) and within about 2 years separated for 6 months and got back together, gave the house to the in-laws and moved from Virginia to Kansas in an attempt to salvage the marriage. IT DIDN'T WORK! After living in Kansas for 6 months I packed up my cloths and CD's, grabbed my daughter and jumped on a train back to Virginia. I got custody of my daughter but lost it due to drug use and failure to comply with the courts. That's when I got really smart. I drank more than 5 people should every day and accompanied it with as much cocaine as I could put up my nose or in my lungs. I slept with anybody I could (married or not) and didn't even realize anything was wrong. I got a DUI and countless close calls. Years went by and I kept on partying, HARD. Then, one day, I had to pee in a cup for work. Needless to say I lost that job. I didn't even wait for the results, I just went and applied elsewhere. To my surprise, I got hired! Then I found out that it was a Christian owned company..... What the heck? A few months later I tried to ask a girl out. I say tried because I couldn't, I knew that she was a good girl, a Christian girl. She was WAY too good for me, a horrible womanizing, drunken, chain smoking, coke head. She asked me out and I accepted (while dropping everything I was trying to stock.) We dated a few times and then I had the honor of meeting her grandmother. She said "Crystal really wants you to go to church with her" and I informed her that that was impossible because no body was going to drown me. A few minutes went by and I changed my mind. I decided that I would go to shut the old lady up, and so I did. The first sermon I heard, the preacher said as he looked directly at me "you could have been up all night doing cocaine, and God would still love you." That made every hair that I had stand up, because I had been up all night smoking crack. I thought, maybe I should go back, there might be a little something to this, so I did. A few months later, my mom sold her house and I moved to the town that my girlfriend lived in. This was a marvelous event in my life, because it got me away from the people I was partying with. (some of you might read this and I want you to know that I mean no offense) A few months later, I was baptized! A few months after that, I proposed to my girlfriend who has been my wife now for 5 and a half years. The night before we got married was the last night that I have had anything to drink. I haven't done any coke since I don't know when and I even quit smoking. God orchestrated this entire series of events and has blessed me with a great testimony. My wife gave birth to a great little boy who is now 3 and into EVERYTHING! We just bought our first house about a year and a half ago and haven't missed any meals or gone naked one day in our lives together, and we owe it ALL to God!