2I believed that God loved "good" people more than me. I thought that God didn't have time for me, and that he didn't really care about me. I lived my life by trying to be good because I "should," but I didn't think that there was any higher purpose for my life. I didn't believe I was valuable to God.
It took me until I was 15 years old to realize how much God loves me. God showed me that he loves me so much that he would have died just for me! It didn't matter that I had sinned, and that I wasn't perfect - God made me, and loved me unconditionally anyway. No matter what I did he would still love me so much.
I learned that God does have time for me - he is everywhere at once, so he has all the time in the world for us. He longs for us to talk to him, love him, follow him, and be with him. He sees every little thing we do - he cries at our smallest sin, but smiles when we obey him. The bible says that he counts every single one of our tears. Most of mine are not worth counting. He loves us that much!
God showed me that he wanted to change me, and use me. He could change me from being shy, afraid, sinful, dishonest and selfish, into the person he wanted me to be - self-confident, bold, loving, courageous, honest and trusting. I know that not a single moment of my life will be wasted - God's continually using every little bit of my life to make me more and more like him.
The power of God's love is so great, that even with God's help we can't fully understand it. When God showed me how incredibly much he loved me, his love taught me how to love God back, how to love myself, and finally how to truly love others. I'm still far from perfect, but I know God's working in me and drawing me closer to him.
And I know just how much he loves every single one of us, and how desperately he wants to be our best friends. He longs for us to spend time with him. We are all valuable and priceless to God, and he has a special purpose for each of our lives. God is the only one who won't let us down; he is the only one who we can really trust. Nobody - not our family, our friends, not even ourselves knows us and loves us as much and as unconditionally as God does.