sunday school

I was on the phone with one of my best friends, Daniel and we were talking about my most recent blog post! (Go read “peace be with you” if you haven’t yet). She mentioned something that I didn’t realize so much about myself. Religion was an aspect of that post and she mentioned that I don’t talk about it as much. I think it’s funny she says this compared to maybe someone I grew up with. I’ll go deeper into this later in the post. This is true and something I’ve been working on because God is a big part of my life. Since I literally spill most of my life on here, why not tell you a huge part of it. I could give you a list of “Christian checklists” (aka things I do as a christian), but I would rather tell you the true reality of being a Chritsian girl in her 20s. So this blog post request is for you Daniel! 

Let’s start with my early beginnings. Growing up, I don’t remember a day I wasn’t in church and still stands true to this day. In a lot of ways, this has shaped my life for good and for growth. My early childhood was filled with veggie tales, Sunday morning bible school, and eating the communion crackers as a snack (funny story with childhood best frind). I always say it’s easy to be a Christian as a kid. It’s cool to learn about Jesus feeding people with just five loaves and two fish. It’s fun to do the arts and crafts of coloring the coat of many colors from Joseph. It’s interesting to learn about Jesus finding all his 12 disciples. It’s fun to be a kid Christian. 

As I get older, I realize it’s not all fun and games. I started to develop a mind for myself and realize I don’t agree with everything, and I think that’s ok. When I say I disagree, I disagree with how sometimes people interpet the Bible. I agree with what God says, but sometimes humans get things wrong and interpret differently. For example, modesty. A lot of people in the church beleive tht you need to be covered head to toe, and if not you are dispresptcing your body. I don’t fully agree with this, and I think this can bring a lot of issues for younger girls. I can remember a church I went to in middle school that told me that girls who wear bikinis don’t respect themselves. If you know me now, I wear a bikini and have no shame, but at that moment, our brains are still very impressionable, and for most part we just listen to what we hear. A lot of the time, when it comes to modesty this verse comes up, 1 Corthinans 8:13, “Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.” Pretty much alluding to: If you wear a bikini, you are making men sin and causing their walk with God to fail. I don’t necessarily agree with that. I think this issue leads into a bigger stem of the problem which is oversexualizing things women do. Often times, I think Christanity can place the blame on one group of people, in this case women, but at the end of the day God doesn’t compare our sins. It’s all the same.  ³ “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? ⁴ How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? ⁵ You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye (Matthew 7:3-5). The list can go on: tattoos, marriage, and politics AND LOTS MORE.

Chritianity and the hardships of life go hand in hand. God says in, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”- John 16:33. God clearly tells us that we will struggle, but hearing it and experiecng it are two different things. I would say my first real set of spiritual warfare I expereinced was in college. I lost a huge part of myself there, but a huge part was my religion. It’s so easy to get caught up with this world and doing things I know I shouldn’t be. 

I think a couple of things that have helped me in my walk are the people I surround myself with. Since I’ve been home and working, I have been attending my Tuesday night bible study with my church friends. It is always a good refesh for my week! (you are welcome to come with me hehe). I alos have been listening to more christian music. Yes, I grew up with that 2010s music with TobyMac and Brit Nicole and I LOVE IT. Another thing I’ve been doing is waking up extra early to pray and set out time for reading Bible or devotional. I try to be super intentional with my prayer and specific! These are just a few things I have tweaked in my life and I feel like I see immense work God has been doing in me.

Back to what I said earlier about Daniel not hearing me talk so much about God. I will be honest, people at school knew I was Christian, but I didn’t really speak fully on it. This makes sense for her to say that because it’s the truth. After that conversation, I realized I don’t want to be ashamed of my faith. So this is me telling YALL, I love my roots and I am happy to say they come from my religion. I think it’s funny because this past Friday, I won an award at work for “Culture Champion”. Essentially this award means the person who is the most welcoming, social and a team player. I thought about this and how I can weave this into talking about my faith. The reason why I feel so welcoming is because I have Jesus in me, and I feel as if He shines through. I often feel nervous when I think about it, but I’ve grown so much in the last year that I have become unapogletc about my faith. I’m not here to convert you or as people like to say “Bible beat”. I will say that God has been there for me and I am hoping whenever you seek comfort you can find it in Him. Sometimes I just feel like I am bothering my friends or even family with my problems, but God can NEVER get tired of me and I love it. Finding this peace was the ultimate feeling and now it’s something I hope y’all can find. If you ever have questions or want to know more about my testinomiy, my DMS are always available.