I’ve always behaved badly since I was very young. My parents live in the countryside and attend to their fields. I was left to myself; there was no one to see what I did, no one to care for me, and no one to help me. I felt lonely and scared, but as I grew older I became angry. I wanted to be someone, I wanted people to pay attention to me, and was willing to do whatever it took.
I soon discovered that if I did bad things I got way more attention than when I did the right thing, so it became my life style and I ended up doing whatever I felt like doing. My peers wanted to hang with me, my teachers didn’t know how to handle me and my parents were gone; it was great. However, when I was home by myself I still felt lonely and left out.
One day my teacher brought new textbooks to the classroom, called “Here I am.” The books focused on why we do things, what is the purpose of each and every subject, where are we headed; things I never really thought about. My teacher taught us about the purpose of life. She went on to tell us that God had something unique for each of us to do, something others could not do and that He constantly was with us to help us do so. She told us He had created us and prepared us to be great and influence others around us to be great.
I suddenly understood I had value to God. He made me because He needs me and that He’s ready to help me, whenever I need Him. That was appealing. I realized that good conduct; even if it doesn’t get me the attention from others it does get God’s attention, since He’s with me all the time. I realized that my good behavior would influence those around me, inspiring them to follow my example. What I learned that day made me happy and grateful to God. Each new topic of the book takes me further down a good way. I feel that I belong and have destiny. Thank you for telling me the good news that Jesus loves me!
Rodrigo Sanchez
