{"id":99,"date":"2019-08-13T18:47:40","date_gmt":"2019-08-13T18:47:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/globalopsccci.org\/griffenfamily\/?page_id=99"},"modified":"2021-02-04T11:51:29","modified_gmt":"2021-02-04T11:51:29","slug":"elaines-story","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/thegriffens.com\/?page_id=99","title":{"rendered":"Elaine’s Story"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Finding the Real Thing<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

            Have you ever really longed for someone to love and accept you just the way you are?  Not because of the way you look or act or how funny you may be\u2014but the real you\u2014the person you are when you\u2019re all alone and no one\u2019s watching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In high school, I tried to find that kind of love and acceptance through friends.  But to be liked by most people that age, you had to be popular, pretty, on the cheerleading squad, have a cute boyfriend, and<\/em> make good grades.  I didn\u2019t quite measure up to those standards and the more I tried to be like other people, and be liked by<\/em> them, the more lonely I felt.  Many times it seemed to me as if I were two different people\u2014the one people liked and the one people didn\u2019t even know about.  I really wished someone would love me for the person I was deep inside.  But instead, I continued to act and dress the way people wanted me to so I could gain and keep their acceptance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I went to church all this time but my relationship with God was pretty dicey.  I thought He was like many of the people I knew\u2014that He approved of me when I did things that pleased Him but then turned the other way when I didn\u2019t live up to His expectations.  So I continued to try <\/em>to live a good life and go to church so I\u2019d hopefully please Him as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I went away to college, I met a girl who was from my hometown.  She invited me to a meeting for people interested in hearing more about Christ.  I was curious as to what Christ had to offer college students so I went.  I met a new group of people who seemed different from those I\u2019d known before.  They seemed to really care about one another and I felt they accepted me as well.  Something else that caught my attention was the way they talked about Jesus Christ as if He were really alive and not just some historical, religious leader who lived and died 2,000 years ago. As I grew to know them better, I discovered that they were really sincere and were people just like me, who had studied the life and claims of Christ and had come to the conclusion that He really was who He claimed to be\u2014the Son of God. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

   I started reading the Bible on my own and in there I found some remarkable things.  It said that God knows everything<\/em> about me.  He knows my innermost feelings and even the number of hairs on my head<\/em>!  In spite of all the hidden things in my heart\u2014both good and bad\u2014that He sees, God still<\/em> loves me with a perfect love.  And if I opened my heart up to Jesus, He would come into my life and never, ever leave me \u2013 this was the love my heart had been aching for! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, that was all I needed to hear.  So one evening 38 years ago I asked Jesus Christ to forgive my sins and come in as my Savior and Lord.  For the first time I knew without a doubt that I didn\u2019t have to earn God\u2019s love\u2014that He loved and accepted me just as I was and that as His child now, He\u2019d never leave me.  This gave me a new freedom and peace, and as I\u2019ve grown to know Him more, He\u2019s helped me to love and accept other people with that kind of love as well.  His love and total acceptance gave me a confidence to trust Him in new situations and with new people that He brings into my life.  I know that I may lose a lot of things, especially as I get older, but one thing I will never lose is His love for me! –and that\u2019s what truly counts in this life and in the next! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus said \u201cYou shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0He\u2019s given me the freedom to experience all of God\u2019s love for me, and He can do the same for you!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Finding the Real Thing             Have you ever really longed for someone to love and accept you just the way you are?  Not because of the way you look or act or how funny you may be\u2014but the real you\u2014the person you are when you\u2019re all alone and no one\u2019s watching. In high school, I tried… Continue reading Elaine’s Story<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-99","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegriffens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/99","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegriffens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegriffens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegriffens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegriffens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=99"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thegriffens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/99\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":186,"href":"https:\/\/thegriffens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/99\/revisions\/186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegriffens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=99"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}