I became a Christian when I was very young. I always knew that Jesus loved me, and I read my Bible and prayed every day. However, when I was about thirteen or fourteen I became very frustrated. I didn’t feel like I was good enough. I’d been a Christian for a while, I loved God, and I felt like I ought to be able to do the right things by now. But I kept slipping up! I’d start the day with good intentions, and then I’d get angry or irritated or afraid, and I’d mess up again. No matter what I tried, I couldn’t be good enough. I knew, of course, that I wasn’t expected to get to heaven on my own, and that Jesus had taken care of that. But I sort of felt that after I was saved, I should be able to be good and do the right thing. It never worked out that way, though, and I ended up frustrated and disillusioned. I couldn’t possibly be like Christ. However, in reading my Bible, certain verses began to stick out to me. One of these verses was Luke 9:23: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” The word “daily” especially stood out to me. Jesus saved me once and for all, but that wasn’t supposed to be the end. That was the beginning. I was supposed to take up my cross every day. Every single day I was supposed to rely completely on God to make me good. I was never meant to do it on my own. In Galatians 2:20, it says, “I have been crucified with Christ and I now longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Every day has to be lived in faith. God is the only one who is able to make me holy and good. God saved me by sending Jesus to die for my sins, and now he has sent his Holy Spirit to make me like him. I still forget this sometimes. I forget that every day must be lived by faith alone, depending entirely on God. But he is constantly reminding me and tugging me back, so that, little by little, I am becoming more like him. And I know that one day, he will present me in heaven, holy and complete in him.