“Lying and Stealing Were My Habits…”

Yvonne came to the Universal Church as a child. She was around 10 or 11 when her mother started attending with her and her sister. However, she didn’t take anything seriously.

“I acted one way in the church, but I was a completely different person outside. This meant that I didn’t develop spiritually, and eventually I got fed up of deceiving myself. I moved out because of the terrible relationship I had with my mother and soon afterwards decided to leave the church. I turned my back on everything that I had learned as a child, including God.

After leaving home, I lost my self-esteem.
I developed harmful habits as coping mechanisms, such as lying and stealing. I had no integrity.
I was always depending on others for reassurance, and my negative mindset did not allow me to be successful in any way.

I went on to get severely deceived in my first relationship, and I also faced physical abuse at the hands of that man. Instead of giving myself the time to heal, I went straight into another relationship, which ended after almost five years. The heartbreak of the five-year relationship brought me back to the Universal Church.

It took me a long time to accept how bad things were; however, once I had accepted my reality and the fact that things needed to change, I decided to humble myself.

I became like a child and learned how to do things God’s way. I started again. I knew in my heart that returning to God would ease my pain, and I was right.

In total, it took me around seven years to rebuild my life to where it is right now. I have participated in several purposes of faith, all of which have been a blessing.

When I was at my most difficult points in life, I found I had nowhere else to go except to God. The truth is that the sooner you humble yourself and turn to God, the sooner your testimony begins.