I have always enjoyed family life. I remember acting like I and my friends were the various members of a family and us pretending that we were fulfilling those responsibilities. I, my parents, and my brothers and sisters seemed to have a great time during all our young years. I assumed that my life would go the same as it did for my parents.

During the teen years I had a great time dating. My criteria for whom I wanted to date was pretty superficial. Rather than wanting to make sure they had character, were ambitious, or were faithful to a commitment, I mostly cared about how they looked. I measured them by their popularity and their ability to have a lot of fun.

As I look back on my days of trying to find that perfect spouse, I realize that most, if not all, of my criteria was useless for finding the right mate. I assumed that those feelings I called love would carry us through anything. My parents would have been a great source of information; but I wanted to live my own life. My school mates were using those things I adopted for picking their dates and ultimately starting a family.

It didn’t take me long to figure out that I made a big mistake in my first marriage. They were lazy, abusive, inattentive, a drunk, and unfaithful. All the signs were there during our time together before marriage. As I look back on our lifestyle and compare it with my parents, they lacked all the qualifications. So, it didn’t take long for us to decide to get a divorce.

I would like to say I learned a lot from that experience and made major changes; but, I didn’t. It seemed like I reverted back to the person I was before marriage. I had been so hurt and divorce had done so much damage to me, I just wanted to go out and have a good time. I actually didn’t think I would get married again for a long, long time.

Things were going fairly well; I was meeting and dating with a lot of people. I wanted to spend more time getting to know those I met. I felt like I was being a lot more picky about those I chose. But, I was still leaving out some of the most important issues, as I picked my dates. There physical appearance was still one of my main concerns.

One night I met a person I liked a lot and they really liked me. We had a lot of fun together and started spending most of our time with each other. We seemed to be able to talk for hours and really enjoyed each other’s company. Before I knew it, we were planning our wedding.

This relationship was a lot better than my first one. It started out so much better and met so many more needs. It took several years before we started growing apart. Before we even realized it, our careers drew us apart. Our jobs were so demanding and our time was so used up spending it with everyone else, we didn’t have much time together.

We bought a lot of things, made a lot of money, and even went on some great vacations; but, we really didn’t have much in common anymore. I enjoyed the company of my fellow colleagues and my work more than my spouse and home life. This attitude and the fact that there was another person I was spending a lot of time with, opened the door for me to have an affair.

I had a feeling my marriage partner wasn’t being faithful with me either. Even when we were together we were mostly on the phone talking to someone else. Neither of us was putting much effort in the marriage. One day we both decided we wanted to be with someone else.

The divorce was very bad and damaging. We had become so competitive with each other that neither one of us wanted to give in to anything. It was a tremendous battle and we both spent a lot of money on lawyers and court proceedings. We ended up not winning anything. We hurt each other in so many ways that the dissolution was empty.

Well, I was back to being single again. There were more things wrong with me than were right. I was carrying a lot of baggage in my philosophies, emotions, and character. I just didn’t care about anything or anyone anymore. I wanted to just take care of me and my own needs. I didn’t trust anyone; and I didn’t want to get involved with anyone.

I tried to crawl into a shell and just work on my career. I tried to have a strict business attitude; and if I wanted sex, I just wanted to sleep around. I married a few more people over the years for various financial and convenience reasons but they didn’t work out. I finally decided to give up on marriage and just live with someone.

For most of my life I didn’t care much about God or religion. I knew a few things other people had told me. But, I hadn’t found any of it to be much of a benefit for me. One day a Christian came to talk to me. They asked me to do them a favor and I couldn’t see why they would want to get help from me. They explained that if I would do this favor for them, they would help me with something I needed help with.

So, I helped them and then they began to ask me about my life, how it was going, what were some areas where I was struggling the most, and things like that. Somehow the conversation got around to marriage. I found myself confiding in them in a very open and free way. There was something about them that helped me trust them with my deepest hurts.

They spent some quality time with me showing me all the benefits I would get, if I turned my life over to God and the Bible. They seemed to totally understand where I was coming from and didn’t act like they were better than me. The more I shared with them, the more they told me about their life and how it had been changed by Jesus.

I couldn’t shock them, offend them, or cause them to reject me. No matter how bad my life had been and was, they let me know God loved me and was powerful enough to help me with it. My heart was so damaged that it felt good to hear someone tell me there was hope for me. Some of the things they told me about themselves were pretty bad. But, the changes in their emotions were very impressive.

Needless to say, I became a Christian and God has worked great miracles in my life. I now have a whole new set of principles to live my life by. I am not only healed in my emotions, I have a solid foundation of Bible concepts that help me make great decisions. Words can’t express how much I have been helped and changed by Jesus.

The principles, that have helped so many people like this, can be found in HELP eMagazine. The love, concern, power, and training are all right here at your fingertips. It is all available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, all year round. Anywhere there is internet access, you can get on this site and keep growing in life-changing concepts.

You and your friends can find out about everything God wants to do for you. God doesn’t love anyone any more than He loves you. He loves you with a sacrificial love that Jesus demonstrated when He was here on earth. Nothing you have done, nothing you have become, and nothing you are doing now can keep Him from loving you and being willing to help you come to Him. Take advantage of this magazine and let it help you and your friends.