How Jesus Changed Me - Taylor

Pastor Jim came full throttle with the Sex, Singleness, & Marriage series over the last few weeks. He spoke on things most pastors and churches try to avoid. For me though, it couldn’t have come at a better time. Every service I felt more and more convicted yet at the same time I was totally okay with it.For starters, I realized that being single was not a bad thing. That the Lord wanted me to embrace my singleness and not get caught up in the dating world until I was ready to get married. Little did I know I had already reached that stage in my life and I had already found the man I plan on spending the rest of my life with.I come from a broken family with a mother that had been married and divorced multiple times and a father that has three children from three different women. Needless to say I haven’t had the best example of a healthy marriage by either of my parents. Honestly I never even pictured myself getting married nor did I truly understand what marriage actually symbolizes. I got to experience the series with my boyfriend Will and with each message our love for each other grew tremendously. At the start of the series I knew I loved him and at times we had even mentioned our future, however I was still hesitant at the time to the idea of marriage and we both agreed to wait till the series was over before talking further about our future together. That changed very quickly. One of my favorite sermons was the sermon, Sex: God, Gift, or Gross?, mostly because it seems to be the topic least talked about in church when it should really be talked about more often, especially in a biblical way. For the most part Will and I had abstained from sex in our relationship, but I can’t say it started out that way and unfortunately it caused a lot of issues for him and me both.Nevertheless the biggest lesson learned throughout the series was that life is not about me, nor about Will, it’s about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. When I saw how beautiful sex was meant to be I found a new longing for it and a new desire to want to wait till marriage. I realized it was not my relationship with Will I needed to work or focus on it was my relationship with Christ, that if my life and our relationship was not centered around our love for our Savior that he and I would ultimately fail.

"When I saw how beautiful sex was meant to be I found a new longing for it and a new desire to want to wait till marriage."

During the course of the series I faced some of my biggest fears but with the love of Christ I defeated and overcame them. I also got to witness my boyfriend go from a good man to a godly man and become the man I AM GOING TO MARRY! The Lord has given me so much love and grace over the last seven weeks. He has opened my heart to a new found glory in Him. I truly feel that the series has mentally, physically, and - most importantly - spiritually prepared me for what my God has in store for me as a wife and as a godly woman!Taylor Van Winkle is a member of the South Fort Worth City Group and is getting baptized next Sunday, June 10th.You can get all the content from the Sex, Singleness, & Marriage series here.If you would like to share how Jesus changed you email Ryan.