Personal Narrative: I Was Raised Extremely Conservative Christian

To truly know and grow with the Creator, one must spend time with the “love letter” He inspired for His Creation. That letter, which I affectionately call love letter, is the Bible. When I was in school and I would get a love note from a young lady, I wouldn’t just sit it down somewhere to collect dust. Instead I would take it, store it in a safe place, and come back to read it over and over again.

Although we did not regularly attend church, I was introduced to the Christian faith as a child and hold those values. I was raised by my grandparents as my father left my mother before I was born and life’s

Since I was a child, I loved making friends. Whenever I saw someone new, I would run up to them and immediately become best friends with them. As I grew up, I recall some occasions when I felt left out. I remember being so sad that they wouldn't include me. From that day on, I made a commitment to make everyone feel involved because that feeling of being left out was one of the worst feelings a young boy/girl could ever have.

They practiced practical Christianity and help all night bible studies that I was required to go to every month. These people practiced dress reform, veganism and abstain from wordly entertainment. Being in that environment, surrounded by those people, I was protected. Nothing from the out side could get to me. I wasn’t allowed to use the internet freely, we had daily family worships where everyone had to learn a new verse everyday and we changed our diet and style of dress. I thought that I believed it. I thought that I was in it for the long haul. However, when I graduated High School (homeschooled 10th-12th) and went to Southern, I was exposed to everything and basically stopped doing everything that I was doing at home. I realized that I did all those things because my parents didn’t give me a choice and it was tradition. My parents we’re having a real and thriving relationship with Jesus while I was just following them. I was full of biblical information, I knew verses and theories and spirit of prophecy passages but I still don’t know God. I know that God will take care of us and that he guides us and I know all these promises but I don’t have any real

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

I can certainly see how one would think the Bible is a set of rules to live by; making them a better person and giving examples on how to handle some situations. The Bible does contain both of those things but it is also so much more that is hard to grasp unless you’ve had help understanding just what the Bible is. It’s difficult to look at, or even know you need to look at, the Bible as more than 66 short stories grouped together unless someone has helped you see that it is more than that. I would first ask my friend, if I did not already know, if they enjoyed reading series of novels. If they say yes, I would start with that as an example. You can pick up any one book in a series and it can stand alone as enjoyable reading, but you will not have the whole story if you started in book five. The Bible is the same and to gain the most from reading it, you need to understand that it is one story with many characters and many twists and turns throughout, and the main character is God. “Through each person, law, psalm, proverb, or prophecy, God is drawing attention to himself and what he is doing as he works out his plan”, and we are not even a supporting character (Cartwright & Hulshof, 2016).

Starting my life off, things were great, I was the youngest of three boys; Alex is my oldest brother who is currently 24, my second oldest brother is 20. In addition to my two brothers I have both supportive and caring parents. My family and I practice Methodist, which started shortly after I was born with me being baptized while surrounded by my; aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, two brothers, and both my mom and dad. After being baptized as a family we would occasionally go to church but sadly as time pasted we when went less and less till we stopped shortly before we moved to Florida. The summer before we moved to Florida I was in the fourth grade and became good friends with a girl named Kristen and her family was heavily religious. Kristen and I started to hang out more and more one day she invited me to go to one of her churches services and I really enjoyed it, afterwards they had a youth group where they had a bonding activity. Kristen and I went to church a few more times before I left in late July to move to Jacksonville.

Fortunately, my father did question the literal teachings of my childhood church. His being raised in a “God-fearing” Pentecostal environment, yet not attending worship services, I asked why. He did not interfere with what I was learning, but through discussions with him, I became aware of his philosophy. He explained to me how attending church services were beneficial to those seeking

My family claims to be religious, but most are content with being “Sunday-morning” Christians. If it were not for my great-grandmother, I probably would be the same as the rest of my family. She was the only one who truly supported my later decision to pursue God instead of flirt around Christianity. I would go to services on Sunday mornings, but that was about as

Growing up in a Christian home was nothing extraordinary. My father volunteered at my church and was very connected with the community, while I went to the kid service every Sunday. About four years ago the church we had gone to for my entire life shut down. Loosing that church was a tough experience because the church was like my second family.

Many people may interpret the Bible and the stories within it in a great deal of different ways. Some people may be absorbed in a story and completely make sense of it. This could possibly be in a completely different way then you did. When this takes place some people may be on edge about being judged for their own thoughts and opinions. This may cause your way of thinking on the meanings for each and every story to sway in a different directions to a certain extent.

In our society today, we can see many bible verses being talked about, being referred to, being preached about, but what in reality does that all mean? Many of us use and interpret different verses in the bible to give someone else a bit of hope and love, a bit of knowledge about Jesus Christ or even to give ourself a boost of confidence and hope in our own personal life. For example, when I personally am “down” or I feel overwhelmed with certain situations in life going on and I talk to my mother or grandmother or even a close friend, they tell me to read certain passages in the bible. Why? Because reading the bible gives hope, gives happiness, gives a sense of love and understanding. Something that no one but God can give us. Reading the bible, reading verses in the bible help connect and form a relationship with the Lord. It helps give understanding to what in reality God has in store for his followers, for his children.

Education: noun the process of receiving or giving systematic instruction, especially at a school or university

I grew up in a very intolerant religion filled with many loving and good-hearted people. This religion was founded with racist, homophobic, and sexist doctrines that my family and I grew up believing and not quite understanding. A few years ago, my mother told us that she no longer believed in this religion and would be officially resigning in the coming months. I grew curious as to why my mother—who would force me into my Sunday best for three hours of church every week—wanted to leave. I discovered the harsh past of this church, and I began to realize, that I was a part of a cult. Everyday I would go to some church activity, after ending my day at the job I got through the church, and I met up with my fiancé, who, you guessed it, was a part

In my later teen years, I moved to the United Kingdom and lived with my mother’s brother and his family. My new family was not a church going family and