Submit Your Personal Story
We'd like to extend an invitation to you to write and submit to us, your own account of any way in which you have felt the personal impact of the Savior's atoning love, grace, and influence in your life as you've moved forward in your journey of life, or as you've faced a particular life challenge. It doesn't matter if the story revolves around a small moment, one event, or a long struggle. Selected accounts will be published on the site.
If you're interested, please fill out the
following form with your story. Stories should be approximately 350-1200 words. While we can post some stories anonymously, we'd also like to receive those from guests who would like to include a photo and first name, with their post, to keep the site inviting, real, and personal for our visitors.
Thank you for your interest and for all you already do to share your voices online in positive ways.
Please submit your stories using
this form.
Stories of Jesus Archive
I have personally experienced a lifelong struggle with depression, which came to a head during my training as a physician in a pediatric residency. Basically, I came to the point where my own strength absolutely wasn’t going to cut it anymore. I was dragged into the psychologist and officially diagnosed with Major Depression, though I now recognize I had weathered several major depressive episodes before.
I was referred to a Psychiatrist and started on anti-depressants. At that point in my life, I felt totally defeated. I wanted to be mentally strong. I didn’t want my secrets out. I didn’t want the prejudice. I felt this occurrence and diagnosis affirmed all the image problems I fought all my life. I felt like my medical career and dream was slipping away, now that the pretender was caught. Read the rest of this entry »
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I struggled with an addiction for over 20 years. After an endless cycle of repentance and half-measures, I learned of a 12-step program with a Christ-centered focus, called “Heart-to-Heart” (Welcome to Heart t’ Heart). As I began to make my way through the literature, I was stunned by the very different picture that was being painted.
Here was the Christ I never dared dream could be real. A Christ that was not angered or even disgusted by my acting-out. A Christ that knew me in the pre-existence. A Christ that knows my potential now and in the future. A Christ that only needs my willingness in order to work a miracle in my life. Read the rest of this entry »
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It is Our Choices and Not Circumstances That Define Us
James
My youth was spent in my father’s home surrounded by drugs, violence, alcohol and depravity. I lived in the midst of people whose souls had been voluntarily sacrificed and knew only the search for earthly pleasure. This was my home until my father died as a result of complications caused by his lifestyle. I was 15. Some might consider that my formative years represented an almost insurmountable set of obstacles and that anyone raised in such circumstances might never be able to find God. But I had survived shootings, drug deals, abuse and neglect for a greater purpose. Read the rest of this entry »
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PART I
The Savior’s Signature Dish
Someone said there are two ways to see life-in the first way, nothing is a miracle; in the second, ‘everything’ is a miracle. I tend towards the latter view. What the Lord fashions with the raw material of our lives is miraculous. Seeing the Lord’s hand in my life has come increasingly since I joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons).
There’s always a feast set for us, in and out of adversity, though we often miss it. The Savior’s signature dish is His perfect love, in every circumstance, including those that result from other’s misuse of their agency. Read the rest of this entry »
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Part II
Well, this us leads us on in sharing our brushes with strengthening adversity, but first a few reflections on going through the heart press.
Pruned, Pressed, & Purified
Through the gospel of Jesus Christ, we have a new understanding of adversity. We learn through opposition and strain, against difficulty and struggle, regardless of the source and nature of the trial. Jesus Christ can succor us.
We, too, need to be pruned, pressed and purified, much like the olive tree and olive oil that symbolize the process, the Purifier, and the product of a pure heart. So here are a few thoughts I’ve learned about the process, and another story from my own life–The Twelve Days of Christmas… Read the rest of this entry »
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Karen
Part III
“The Crust of Irony”
Well, you’ve probably noticed in your trials, as I have in mine, that there is always some irony, but not nearly as much as in the ironies the Savior endured. Enduring mine enabled me to see and appreciate the grueling ironies of the Savior, and to come to know Him better.
The Spirit tutors and chisels and presses even or especially around the “crust of irony,” as Elder Maxwell aptly calls it. Such was the case here.
Mom confronted pancreatic difficulties all her life, but was never diagnosed with cancer until nine days prior to her passing. Apparently, pancreatic cancer is one of the most difficult to diagnose, and more than 60 percent aren’t actually even identified until death or some other necessary surgery that reveals it.
Mom’s official diagnosis prior to the final one was “benign cystic disease.” Like most others whose loved one has an illness, I began immersing myself in articles about the nature of pancreatic cysts. Read... Read the rest of this entry »
