MY TESTIMONY

Larounce Sanders

            The testimony I’m about to write is based on giving you some valuable advice that will help you change your life for the betterment of self before it’s too late and you regret the choices you made later in life.

            You are probably saying, “Who does this person think he is, trying to tell me how to live my life?  He ain’t my father.  I don’t need advice about anything, I can handle myself.”  Well, let me tell you something about that.  I thought I had it all figured out.  Even my loved ones were telling me to slow down before I wreck, but all they said went in one ear and out the other.  I continued on the downward path of being a drug abuser, alcohol abuser, having a gang mentality, and being a womanizer for self-gratification.  These were the characteristics I possessed. 

            During this time my fellow companions embraced and congratulated me based on the various destructive things I did.  This made me feel good because I already had low self-esteem and a negative self-image that stemmed from my father always telling me I would be nothing, I’m stupid, I’m weak, and many more degrading words that I soon began to believe. 

            I wore a mask to hide who I really was and how I really felt about myself.  I eventually embraced this false identity because I was finally getting accepted by my peers.  The negative affirmations I received and the false concept of self, sent me to prison in May of 1991.  I was 21 then with a sentence of 26 years to life for first degree murder. 

            I pray with all honesty that this letter touches your heart and changes the direction you were headed in and guides you in the right direction to turn your life around.  Because when it’s all said and done, the only people that are going to be in your corner is your family.  None of those other people you called friends.

            You don’t want to be sitting here where I am currently and wishing you would’ve listened to others and made better choices.  All I can say now is that I should have listened to them and stayed in school and gone to college to earn a degree, instead of getting a street degree in being a phony and trying to prove myself to others who didn’t really care about me.

            Don’t ever forget that you are somebody regardless of what others say to you.  Don’t let those negative words define you.  You are special!

            Since I’ve been in prison, I have changed my life.  I accepted Christ in my life on November 8, 2018 and I got baptized on May 2, 2019.  This transformation has blessed me greatly in so many ways it’s hard to imagine.  I no longer indulge in the things that corrupted my life.  I just feel good about my life and where I am now.  God is good.  You just must let Him come into your life and believe me you will experience His goodness.  I’m walking, talking proof of it.

            I pray these words guide you and others.  Come to the light, the dark will destroy your life forever.  Amen