Tamara's Testimony: "Taste and See"

This is another guest post in my series where readers share their own testimonies of how God has worked in their lives. Many thanks to Tamara from a.toodle.lee.do for sharing her story!

I grew up like any other good Pastor's daughter. My sunday school attendance was superb. Actually, at times I refer to my childhood as one long church service. I saw my parents' heartfelt devotion. I knew God existed, and I believed the Bible to be true. I never fully grasped the gospel and what it meant to me personally. There was to heart connection.

From the time I was nine till I turned thirteen, my life looked like your average preteen. I was a follower and I followed my older friends right at the heels. If they did it, I did it. I became very numb to my surroundings and even more so God. I wasn't even 13, and I did stuff I didn't understand with my teenage boyfriend, although, never fully engaging in intercourse. (Crazy... tell me about it.) I was dying on the inside as I struggled to keep it together on the outside.

If you ever want to know how to flip a preteen or teenager's life upside down: Move. Yes, moving will do just that. My parents ended up taking a position that allowed us to move. The move was very hard for me. Leaving my too-old-for-me boyfriend and bad influence, pot-smoking friends left me depressed, angry, and disgruntled.

My parents were on staff at a church as pastors and had met the youth pastor's wife. My mom and her hit it off. Soon after, my mom was forcing me to not only go to youth group but to the youth pastor's Bible study. Dragging my feet and arms folded across my chest, I went to Bible study. It just so happened that no one else decided to show up. It was me and the youth pastor's wife. She didn't know me. She knew my parents. She assumed that I was a wonderful Christian and would love nothing more than to have a prayer/worship time for two hours.

The first hour went creeping by as I thought of every possible excuse for her to bring me home. I felt so uncomfortable. I had my head in my lap and tried to sleep. All of a sudden, I was EXTREMELY awake. I kept trying to tune her out. I oddly couldn't. After awhile, I really started to listen as she prayed. She didn't know but she was praying things I'd been asking God about all my life, about things that have happened to me, so on and so on. She kept repeating this scripture, "Taste and see that the Lord is good" (Psalm 34:8), throughout the night.

Afterward, she drove me back home. The scripture kept playing over and over in my head. I went into my bedroom totally aware of God in my life and convicted of my sin, I prayed for forgiveness and asked God to come into my life. I never before understood the goodness of God. I had seen it though. But, never tasted it. That night I made a decision deep within my heart to pursue God. I knew I needed to apply that scripture to my life.

After that night, there was a major inward change. The outward change was progressive. But, I know that night changed my life for eternity.

This guest post is from Tamara who keeps up the lovely blog, a.toodle.lee.do. Tamara is freshly married to her husband Ted. They live in Philadelphia where Ted serves in the US Coast Guard. Tamara enjoys all things domestic, blogging, and sharing Christ to the random homeless person.

P.S. If you're interested in submitting a guest post testimony to be featured on Life Blessons, please visit the original post for details!