Nieces and Nephews

To my nieces and nephews,

I love you all dearly.  Many of you are in your teen years or older.  I'm sure you're not looking for any advice, but I want to be sure that I share two things with you.  These are the most important things for your future happiness.

The first thing I want to share with you is Jesus Christ.  Most of you know me (I'm sorry that I've not had the privilege to be in all of your lives) and know that I do my best to always tell the truth no matter how difficult it is.  Well, the truth is that God is real.  He exists and the world doesn't want you to believe in Him.  Or if they are okay with believing in Him, they want to water it down and tell you that He is just one of many viable options.  Or they try to make you think that being outspoken about God is being prejudice.  These are all lies.  There is only one true God.  He loves you.

He loves you more than your parents or I could ever love you.  And hopefully you know that your parents and I would happily give our lives for you.  God doesn't just say this, He proved it.  Because we are all sinners.  Be honest - you know you've done something wrong or thought something bad at least once in your life.  (I know none of you are angels.)  These bad things are sin.  You don't bring prisoners to dine with the Queen or the President.  You don't bring sinners into the presence of the one true God.  So how can a loving God unite Himself with His sinful children.  Well, sins have to be paid for - kind of like fines.  The penalty for sin is death.  We all will die physically one day.  However, that is just our body.  Our spirit, who we truly are, is already dead because of sin.  So once we die, we will not be able to enter the presence of God.

Wow, Aunt Bonnie, how sad.  Now what?  Well, God came up with a plan, a way to pay the penalty for everyone at once.  He sent His son Jesus to be born of a virgin and live a perfect sinless life.  And then after healing and teaching the people of Israel, Christ was beaten, tortured, and then nailed to a cross.  He died on the Cross and then went on to defeat sin and the grave.  Yay!  So now we don't have to die.  His death paid the price for all of our sins.  But you have to know Jesus Christ.  You have to seek him out.  You have to believe.  If you do this, then He will move in your life through the Holy Spirit to cause you to make different (better) life choices.  He will guide you and see you through every trial as you seek to live life the way He has commanded.  Those who don't believe will not be reunited with God, not because of their sins, but because they chose not to have faith in God.  This has been  the key to my life.  I have not always followed well, but I have always and will always follow God.  I hope you do too.


The second thing I hope you know is to respect yourself.  God wants you to have the best, but often times we settle for what we want right now.  I encourage each of you to graduate high school, go to college, and then start families.  In that order.  I also encourage you to wait until you are married to have sex.  God created sex to be a wonderful and special thing between a husband and wife.  You will never experience the joy that God has planned for you if you take what was consecrated to be a special union and make it common place by having multiple partners and by having sex outside the bonds of marriage.  Respect and love yourself enough to give yourself the best.

If you learn those two things (love God and love yourself), then I know your life will be successful.

All my love,
Aunt Bonnie