Personal Narrative About God

Much of my whole life growing up was doing more good than bad. Much of us probably know about following rules as an access to heaven which I was raised under. Growing up as a child, I was forced in religion because of my grandparents did it and also my parents. My grandparents were so strict with their faith that my parents stop going to church since they made them feel not accepted. At times I asked my parents why we are not going to church and always told me we have other plans today. Not knowing that was the day I stopped going to church and knowing God more for the next 12 years of my life. During these times, I still followed the rules that I was raised under and was truly hard on myself when I did something wrong to the point where I would ground myself (I was 6 at the time).

I, Deputy Gough received a call reference a white Ford truck driving in the Gamester trailer court all over the roadway. Upon my arrival I spoke with David Vore and Jennifer Vore. Jennifer Stated that Randy was the driver of the white Ford truck that said, “All Good Construction.” David and Jennifer both stated that they saw the truck drive through the yard hitting a slow child at play sign and the stop sign.

I was blessed to be able to go through such a good school system. Some people complained about going to a private, Christian school, but I really enjoyed it. I do wonder sometimes though what it would have been like to go through public schooling and if that would have changed how I am today. I think the strong morals and values I hold today were largely created by my upbringing. But, I do think I used to simply claim to be a Christian because of my family. If my parents are Christian that must mean I’m a Christian, right? Going to college made me realize that my faith is something that I have to make my own. My faith is not necessarily my parents’ faith. I have to make a decision on what I believe and what I stand for, separate from my family. I remember that around the age of 14 I started to feel distant from God and was not very strong in my faith. Throughout high school I think I had different points of feeling “spiritual highs,” but felt like my faith was lukewarm. Today, I think I am starting to separate my parent’s faith from my own, and starting to make it mine. I feel like this is something everyone has to do at some point in their life. In the past year, and in the past couple months especially, I have had a stronger relationship with God. I definitely don’t feel “strong” in my faith, but I feel like I am growing spiritually. I think being here and the

Born and raised in Marion, Iowa and into an evangelical church, my parents “Baby Dedicated” my life to christ. At age 5 my family moved to New Covenant Bible Church. When I was young I didn't think much of church, it was just something you did and was merely going through the motions. But when I hit middle school my parents made me go to church every Wednesday and Sunday. Key phrase, made me. At this point in my life I didn't like church, at all. As I grew older, I wanted to be at church less and less. And I dreaded going every time Sunday morning rolled around. I had the mindset that the world had more to offer me than Christ did. And so I made excuses and put up fights and soon I rarely went to church. My family went but I stayed

This Sunday we will wrap up a sermon series called “Storyline” in which we have explored how the narrative of our lives intersects with God’s story and helps to move the plot along. You can get caught up on the entire series here.

As a child, I was very quiet, observant and obedient. I would attempt to excel in everything I did in order to make my parents proud.Up until I was a teenager, I followed their will without excessively questioning their decisions. I was raised to have faith in God, go to Church and do as I was told. I spent 12 years of my life going to Church with too many unanswered questions. I didn’t know why I had to attend church, I didn’t understand how this so-called God we believed in was so powerful and why he wouldn’t make world peace possible if he was as amazing as he was perceived. None of it made sense to me. During school my favorite books to read consisted of primarily non fiction books about animals and the world in general, mythological, and books concerning the supernatural. I have always been intrigued by unexplained stories, but in the end, although I acknowledged the slight possibility of supernatural existence, I also understood the difference between facts and mere theories. During summer, my reading list consisted of fables and biblical stories. To me, everything I

When I was about 12, I started to drift away from God. I had a whole new world of temptations to face. I always just figured if I sinned all I would have to do is tell God I was sorry and ask for forgiveness. The problem was I wasn’t being sorry in my heart, I just did it because that’s what church said to do. When I was 15, I renewed my faith in Christ and I have been going from there. Mere Christianity has really helped my walk with Christ over the summer. He showed me the wrong in the daily stuff I did. I started to change my life and fix what I did

Ever since I was a young boy, my family would pile into our old 15-passenger van and drive to church each and every Sunday, without fail. I didn't really understand it at first, it was just something I had to do. When I was around 6 years old, my mother encouraged me to accept Jesus Christ as my lord and savior. I hardly understood what it meant, but I went through with it, much to my mother’s excitement. Years passed, and my understanding grew. Up until I was around 13 years old, my faith had no correlation to my actions. I could recite bible verses for hours, yet I couldn't say what any of them meant. That all changed one year at Camp Selah, a Then, in the year 2014, my faith took a turn for the worst. I’d had a testing first year of high

I believe in my shotgun, because it teaches me that I can find success by overcoming the challenges that come my way.

Personally, this topic become somewhat of a lifelong struggle. I have attended church because of my parents since I was born, and never questioned a single thing I heard until approximately age ten. At that point, all I knew was that something about me was slightly different from other children my age. I understood when a girl was attractive, but I was never attracted to them. As I grew older, I began to slowly recognize what set me apart from my friends and just how much of my life this affected. I became incredibly discouraged, barely kept up any kind of relationship with God, and felt a general sense of hopelessness. I managed to push the topic into the back of my mind for a while, taking on the strategy of procrastination in order to feel better about myself and my desires.

During elementary school I decided I wanted to move in with my father who did attend church religiously every Sunday morning. Catholic mass was awful and difficult to understand. My father put my brothers and I through communion and made us participate in church bible study to further understand the religion. As I got older my views on Catholicism had gotten worse, I started hating going to church. When the nuns called my age group to have children’s church my father forced me to go, they took us to a room that had no windows and was always cold. The nuns made us read the old testament in the King James Bible version and I always had a hard time reading and understanding it because of the way it was written. This experience made me hate and

As a teenager, life began to put more pressure on my faith. I went to public school and most of my friends had no faith in God. My best friend died of muscular dystrophy when I was 16. I prayed and prayed he would be healed. His family and I even took him to faith healing event. I was so sure he would be healed and when he wasn’t, in anger, I rejected God. I began to live as if there was no God.

My journey with God started in February of 1993, when I went to a ladies’ conference in Columbus, Texas. It was while the speaker was explaining that she knew there were some of us out in the audience, who felt guilty about something they had done in their past, and they did not feel that God could forgive them for it. But then she quoted from God’s word; “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, not principalities, no things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:38-39 NASB) The speaker continued on to say that all we need to do is

However, I have been challenged throughout this faith journey. I was a child born out of wedlock, which meant that my parents never married when I was born. My parents never got along, which lead me to live with my mother during the weekdays and to live with my father during the weekends and the summer. However, as I headed to my freshmen year to high school, I felt that I could not be with my father, knowing our relationship would not work out. I spend with my mother and grandmother, which lead me to reaffirm my faith and to restore my relationship as he was diagnose with diabetes and had heart surgery. Soon, I made amends, trying to overcome the guilt of leaving him, even thinking about what would happen if he had died.

Humans from my own point of view are God's creation, because the bible makes me understand that humans were created in God's image, and during the creation of man, God blew the breath of life into man to make him come alive. I assume the reason humans are so unique is that they were created like God. The reason why humans are the best of all creation is that they can think, invent new things, and have dominion of all other creatures on earth. Humans are the only living creation that is conscious of their own existence, because they have advanced knowledge and skills to do things, for example, humans can clothe themselves, cook their foods, and even invent numerous technologies. Humans have a well-regulated sense that is able to