Testify
6 The Well Magazine / Spring 2013
Searching for God Her search for love led her to the love of the true and living God
W hen I was a little girl , I truly loved the Lord . I would pray every night and every day . I was raised in the church . I also genuinely loved people . I can remember meeting people and they would ask me , what do you want to be when you grow up and I would say with a big smile , “ Me and my husband are going to go to Africa to save all the starving people .” I was very serious because I believed with all my heart that was my purpose . As I began to grow , I was very much in tune with the feelings of others . Somehow , I would always know what someone was thinking and if they were sad or happy . It was as if something from the inside of them was speaking to my mind . For a long time , I didn ’ t know how to handle others feelings and emotions , especially when they were sad , distraught or troubled .
I had to grow up fast . My parents divorced . My mother found herself a single mother with five children to raise . I was the oldest . At an early age , I had to help raise my sisters , which I felt took away from my childhood . There was a void inside of me that I tried to fill by looking for love in all the wrong places . I tried to fill the void with promiscuity and partying .
My issues were spiraling out of control . I was having sexual relationships with different men , drinking excessively and partying . My mother and I stayed at odds . My junior year of high school , she sent me to live with my father . My father , who was an ordained pastor , supported me and began teaching me about God . My deepest desire was to know the one and only living God . I began a search to find this God that led me down a dangerous
By Latasha Williamson
road to New Age religion . When I went to college for my undergraduate degree , I attended church sporadically . Things in my life continued to get worse . By the time I was in graduate school , I stopped attending church all together . I had decided to forget about Christianity and Jesus . I wanted a new way of life . I wanted to know the one and only living God . I had a big void in my life and I was searching for fulfillment . I just assumed that I tried Jesus and He wasn ’ t enough .
A spiritual journey
I was introduced to a series of New Age books titled , “ Conversations with God .” The New Age religion does not believe that Jesus is the truth , the way and the life . The New Age religion believes that Jesus is on the same level with Buddha , Krishna and Muhammad , that He is just one of the prophets . They also believe that the devil is a man-made creature and intellectually he just doesn ’ t exist . When I received my first book , I was very excited and scared all at the same time , but I truly believed all of the above . In addition to receiving my first book , I packed all of my bibles and study guides and delivered them right to the garbage . I walked away thinking that I was making a fresh start , that I was making a spiritual journey , only to find that I was making a fresh start to death , destruction , heart ache and pain . The next two years of my life would be the most devastating . I was broken physically , spiritually , emotionally and financially . I met my son ’ s father while in graduate school . I moved with him from St . Louis to Kansas City , Missouri in 2004 and we bought a home . The first month we were in Kansas City , I conceived my son . My dream quickly became a nightmare . I realized that I was sleeping with the enemy . Every day we were ver-