Growing Up With Religion

I have struggled with things I didn’t know how to overcome and had to leave in the hands of God. I had to put my trust in God when my great aunt had to have emergency surgery. She is ninety years old and the doctors didn’t think she would be strong enough to recover, but she recovered faster than they would expect a heathy, young person to.

I was beyond scared and now a single parent with no idea of what to do with a baby. So, now my prayers went from asking for a saving grace to asking to be a good parent. It wasn’t easy and I fell back into the drinking crowd. I had that gut-wrenching feeling again of disgust with myself and prayed again for someone or something to get me out of this drinking situation. Well, He came through again and sent an amazing man into my life. We ended up together, he was the only man my daughter knew since she was 11 months old. It was just the three of us all the time so it stopped me from going out drinking and we ended up buying a house together. After six years the relationship came to an end for reasons that were not bad, just on different levels of life at that point. During our time together we didn’t go to Church but he was a believer and we talked about God a lot. It opened up my faith to a new view. I got a bible and devotional books and began my journey as a Christian. I started school and stayed with my parents until I could get on my feet and get my own place. I climbed the later at the Healthcare facility in the area and ended up getting a great

The mission trip to New Orleans. I had let Jesus into my heart but I started to get this desire and passion to want to start following him, but I didn't know what that looked like or what that meant or how to do it. And so I prayed and longed for him to show me that. As we headed down to New Orleans, the back of my van started to get into really good conversations about life and each other and Katie Thul asked the question that forever has changed my life. “What has been the hardest part of your life so far?”. This might not seem like to bad of a question, but the fact of the matter was that I had never told anybody about the dark and gritty parts of my life before. I had always bottled it up, to scared to tell anyone because I feared what people thought of me, to afraid they’d turn away. And as people went around sharing, it came my time to share and I knew I couldn't do it, so I said I didn't want to share, and as they went around deep inside me I was being told I needed to. I needed to let it out and just speak. And so they came back to me and I let them in, I told them about what I had gone through and as I was in tears I looked up and saw this kid looking back at me from the front of the van. He wasn't apart of the conversation we were having but you knew he was listening in and as our eyes met, he was in tears. I then realized that this was Anna’s brother. This was the kid. That week I embraced my past and used it to help and grow and evangelize this kid, Jackson. I knew what to say because I was in the exact spot he was in just a year earlier. The Lord showed me that I can make a difference in people's lives through him. God opened my eyes to the people I had around me. He put Sydney into my life, someone who on this trip poured a tremendous amount of wisdom, truth, and love into me and essentially pushed me to love and follow Jesus recklessly and at all costs. So many people, from Ally to Zach, to

When I was a child, every time I saw my mother crying and hurting from all the abuse induced by her husband, the person who was supposed to protect her, I ask God, why? I never received an answer. As the abuse continued and life went on, I was never able to forgive him for the suffering that he caused not only to my mother, but to me as well. I was carrying all the miseries from my childhood and taking out on the people who love and care for me. There was no closure for the pain and suffering. The only person that I saw comfort and security from was my father, a man who never allowed me to pity myself or blame myself for other's actions. He was always there for me until my eighteenth birthday when he decided that I was “old enough to be on my own;” it was his own way to attempt making me independent. Everything became blurry at that point in my life. There was nowhere to turn except the only person who had the opportunities in her eighty years to master the meaning of true forgiveness: my grandmother, Consuelo, which her name literally means to console. Living with her and listening to her life stories allowed me to comprehend

I had lost a group of friends who I grew very close to seeing as they looked at me in a different aspect. "She's going to judge us" , "She's too good for us now", "I don't want to sit with someone who's going to preach to me" , these were all phrases that got passed around the tiny halls of my middle school after I had committed my life to Christ. My "social life" had digressed and people didn't want to be around me, but that's the moment I came to a realization. I was looking for love somewhere there wasn't any, I had put my foot in a path that was dry on appreciation where I had thought there was plenty, and the heartbreak I had taken from the loss of three great friends had got healed by one awesome Father. There are some worldy heartbreaks when accepting Christ, but they become heavenly appreciations after you realize why the Lord has detached you from

Through this journey I lost everything, except my faith in The Lord. It was at this time, The

In the evolving age of science and technology the solid and proveable world is beginning to put our faith in higher beings and powers.For example, biopsychologist Dr. Nigel Barber predicts religion could die out by 2041 due to being replaced with materialistic items. A country’s GDP, local prices and human development index have caused Dr. Barber to come to the conclusion that the average country will be secular in 2041. In Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke, preachings and prophecies are dissolving as a god complex for a superior race and their devices grows. In the future, it is possible that religion will be replaced with machines and artificial intelligence

26th birthday came around. My faith wouldn't allow me to accept such a horrible outcome. Through prayer, physical therapy and family support, I was able to overcome depression! I

My junior year of High School I was a mess. I did things I told myself I would never do. I smoked weed after I had always told my oldest brother to stop. I drank alcohol, never beer, even though my father was a drunk alcoholic. I somehow put in my mind that that was better than drinking beer since I only ever saw him drink beer. I didn’t know what to believe anymore and had no faith in anyone or anything. The summer of 2015, going onto my senior year, my church invited me to a camp, Gravity Camp, which was supposed to make you closer to God. My church said they would pay for it,which is why I went, and I decided to go with one of my brothers. This camp changed my life since it showed me how to forgive and trust again, shaping me for the rest of my life.

I remember there was a time when my uncle had passed away and it hurt me for a while but I always had God there and I believed that I was going to overcome the situation and I did and I've always had situations not similar to that but situations where I need to trust God and overcome

Growing up in a strict Catholic household meant that I would attend church every Sunday morning with my family. For as long as I can remember it was the normal thing to do. My parents attended habitually, but my mother was more adamant about going. Both of my parents and my four siblings were born in Mexico and they lived there for quite some time. I believe that, that may be one of the reasons they were more serious about the Catholic religion. It’s a different culture in Mexico, and in my families case they were basically born in to it.

I have always been around the right people and the right setting. As a little kid I was very respectable and well behaved. This was from my parents and learning about faith at a young age. As I grew older I always possessed these traits. As I got to high-school I was still a very good and well behaved young man. I made mistakes on the weekend with my team by being destructive. After I passed this stage I had an empty feeling inside of me. This is when I realized I got distracted from my faith. Faith made me the I was and I knew I was a good person. I let satan get in the way for awhile and I knew I had to get back on the narrow path of righteousness. A verse that reminds me of this is Matthew 7:14. This verse describes how it is a narrow path living for God and not many people are able to live for God or find the path. I knew I was a person of strong faith, so I was able to get back on the path and begin to live for God once again. I knew my destructive behavior was a sin now and not a laughing matter. I was done acting like a chid. I started to live a life full of faith and righteousness. I lived like this so people could see how I acted different. I wanted people to see Christ in me and the changes I was able to make by truly living for him. I had the Lord with me my whole life, but I truly think he made a change in my life after the tree incident. That incident really allowed for

I believe that having a spiritual life is beneficial to growth and development over the lifespan. In fact, there are a lot of people that believe in a higher power and that this higher power has influence in their lives. Belief in a higher power/God provides comfort and support in times of need. Melinda Wenner, 2008 who wrote “Religion is good for kids,” states that kids who have religious parents are better behaved and control themselves much better than other kids. Wenner also sites a study that looks at how religion affects a child’s development. The study, she speaks of, was done by John Bartkowski, a sociologist and his fellow coworkers. The researchers used evidence obtained by over 16,000 first grade students and their parents. The research found that children who went to church and had parents that spoke with them about religion had better self-control and better social skills than those kids who did not have a spiritual parent (s), (Wenner, 2008). In addition, Bartkowski thinks that religion is good for children because it creates networks and support and can also help parents reinforce spirituality to their children. He also said that the values that children get from religious worshipers are pro-family and can help shape how children develop. I agree with the sociologist W. Bradford Wilcox who Melinda Wenner, 2008 quoted as saying that parents are more interested in their children going to heaven than going to college.

The word of God has brought me through some of the most difficult times in my life. Almost three years ago now, my family suffered a great loss. It really affected me. There was a point in time when I let the pain and guilt of that tragedy eat me up. God brought me out of that dark place I was in and He made my faith stronger. God revealed to me that He has a greater plan. Today, looking back I see how God used that tragedy to help grow my faith in the midst of the hurt. Now I can talk to and be there for people who go through the same thing. Where we are in life, when we are in God’s will, is exactly where we need to be!

Back in October of 2016, I would say my faith in God was scratched and grew in a way that has made me who I am today. I was faced with a tough time in my life where I encountered a situation I was not expecting. My heart was hurt and I was in a place of being statement because my spirt was feeling empty. I was confused at The Lord and constantly wondering why he would put me through this time. I felt at times that my dreams were crushed and my life was falling apart. But that was an emotion not the truth.