My brother's testimony.

My brother, William Joshua Hardy (named after my daddy) is 24 yrs old. Currently he works for my father while attending Georgia State University. He owns his own home and 3 (yes, THREE) flat screen T.V.s. :)
A long time ago, my parents divorced and as I grew up I never one time was angry b/c I was just so happy to have a brother. If my parents had stayed married....I wouldn't have a brother b/c Mama had her tubes tied. Needless to say, Daddy and Angie (Josh's mom) met, dated for a long time and conceived my precious brother. Josh is 7 years younger than me so you can imagine how much I picked on him growing up. He has always been my favorite brother in the world. I love him more than anything. Even though technically he isn't my "real" brother (he's my half brother)....you would never hear me say such about him. My Mom and Dad made it a point to my sister and I that Josh was ours and we always knew he was ours.
As a matter of fact, my Mother feels like Josh is hers too. :) My Mom's family treats him just like their grandchild, cousin, etc.
Growing up was hard on Josh, b/c unfortunately his mother left him when he was about 9 months old. She gave him to Daddy and said "I can't do it anymore." My Daddy stepped up to the plate and became a mom and a dad to Josh. Daddy raised Josh all by himself and quite frankly he did an amazing job.
As Josh got older, like most kids...he began dabbling in alcohol. He went off to college and became a "professional partier!" There were many nights I couldn't sleep b/c I worried so much about him. I cried all the time praying and asking God to protect him and to become "real" to Josh in only a way He could.
My prayers were answered when Josh moved back home. Although he continued to experiment w/ alcohol here.....something happened. God was beginning to work his magic and he slowly (on His time) drew Josh in.
This is his testimony that he placed on his MySpace page. I wanted to post it here b/c it is awesome. I hope it will minister to someone here.

***Josh-I've said it before and I'll say it again....I am so very proud of you. You are such a wonderful example to so many. May your life be full of happiness, joy, peace, understanding, and love.....May God continue to shine down on you and may you always reach for Him. He will sustain you through everything. I love you more than words will ever be able to explain. I feel like your Mama. I really do. My love for you is never ending. You make me so proud and honored to call you one of my best friends. Thank you for sharing your testimony w/ me and all of my friends.

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Josh's Testimony typed in June of 08.
God is good...

I have never really been the kind of person to write bulletins on here. However, god has put it on my heart to share some things with whomever may want to listen.

I don't even know where or how to begin this but here it goes. I have always considered myself a somewhat religious person. But was I truly living for god? I mean I may have went to church a few times a year and casually told others that I was a Christian. But I never really understood the magnitude of what Jesus is all about. As most of us do, I lived the famous line "you don't have to go to church to be a Christian." While I don't think that one must go to church every single time that there is anything going on in order to call them self a Christian. I do think that going to church can and will truly bless those who are willing to put the effort into it.

As many of you may know, I have pretty much always been the outgoing and fun loving kind of person. I have never really been one to shy away from drinking and partying. I mean I went to Georgia Southern University for two years so you know I had no problem being around that type of lifestyle. In fact, I thrived on that sort of lifestyle. I would wait all week to be able to go out on Friday's and have the greatest times that I will never remember with the friends I will never forget. You can bet that if it was a Thursday, Friday, or Saturday then I would be going out somewhere. The sad truth is that I would have rather gone out partying by myself than go out and eat with my family on any given weekend night. With all of this said I thought I was having the time of my life.

I was working one day and a guy came into our business. As we began talking I found that we both shared a passion for college football. I didn't know that soon we would both share a different passion. We continued to talk for about 20 minutes at which time he started to walk out of the store. He stopped, turned around, and uttered the words I had heard so many times before..."Do you go to church." I told him that I hadn't been going to church like I should be and he calmly told me that it was OK. He then proceeded to tell me that he had someone in mind at his church that he though that I would hit it off with. I asked him where he went to church at and he told me. He told me that he would love to have me visit his church any time that I should wish to come by. Now to be honest I didn't have much intention on actually going to this church at the time.

Later that same week I went to play golf with a good friend of mine. Of course, I was drinking in front of him. Not really knowing the change he had recently made in his life in that area. After we got done playing he proceeded to my house. After a minute of sitting there we somehow got on the topic of religion and he began to tell me about the drastic change that he had made and how God had gotten him through all of it. He too invited me to visit his church so that I could see for myself what he had been going through. I figured that I might give it a try and actually come by his church the following weekend.

On that Sunday I walked into the church only to find both of them talking to each other. I couldn't believe that they were both from the same church and had both, unknowingly, asked me to visit their church within hours of each other. I came in and spoke to both of them. Both of which I could tell couldn't believe I had actually showed up. You would have thought I had just gave them both a million dollars by the looks on their faces. It turns out the first guy was talking about my friend that I had played golf with only hours after he was telling me about him. I still didn't read to far into this phenomenon.

I sat through the first church service at this church which was a little different than any church I would usually have gone to. It was a small church which I usually didn't go to and it was slightly more intense than I was used to even though I had been to some churches where they believed in that sort of thing before. However, something just clicked and I felt a presence that I had never before felt. I felt a peace that I had never before felt.

That Sunday was almost two months ago and I have not drank a drop of alcohol since then. My life has completely changed for the better. I didn't even ask god to help me quit drinking and partying. However, I can't help but think that he knew, without me even saying anything, what was and is best for me. He took the desire from me to drink alcohol and party and do all the things that I had practically based my life upon only hours before then. He has blessed me with more blessings than I can even begin to list on here. I know...... if you have made it this far you are probably thinking is he ever going to stop typing. I will soon.........But God has blessed me with soo much that I just can't even begin to imagine how I lived for soo long without him in my life. I have recently called upon God to help me with some areas in my life and every single one of them has improved a hundred fold. He has brought many special people into my life. One in particular whom I am especially thankful for. I truly believe that there is nothing that god cannot do. No matter how great the task may be. God can do it. I don't even know if anyone will read this but if you have made it this far I hope that you can see how amazing God is. I hope that you see that you don't have to be a priest, pastor, deacon, or any of that in order to partake in the blessings that god wants for all of us. I am living proof of this. I still get chills every single time I think about God's power, mercy, and love for all of us. If anyone should need anything from me whether it be prayer or just to talk. Feel free to send me a message or call me anytime.