What Was The Right Religion For Me?

I grew up in a Hispanic Catholic household. In my younger years my family attended a Catholic church every Sunday, and my sister and I also went to Sunday school right before the service started. As a child, I didn't really think about church and the idea of religion because I mostly just followed the beliefs of the adults around me. To me, church and Sunday school were just things that my parents required me to go to. My older sister on the other hand, did not really appreciate the idea of church and Christianity and I really did not understand why she didn't want to go to church or just listen to my parents. Over time I learned that she considered herself an atheist and she had always questioned religion and most importantly Christianity. About the same time, my family stopped attending church and we disconnected ourselves from religion. I was still use to my mother praying during meals and speaking about God but we never took the time

I was born into a family where my moms side was mormen and my dads side didnt really have any beliefs that i am aware of. as a kid i loved going to church and learning about god but my mom didnt like going so we stoped and at about the age of 3 my parents got devorced i acully remeber telling my dad one day that i could walk to into my moms house by myself because i didnt want them to fight any more. after that i whent to church periodiculay with a friend and my grandma then at about the age of 8 or 9 my mom and i moved here and found the ward we are in now so i went but i didnt really like it so we didnt go all that offten. that summer i whent up to a camp called royal rigges retreat it was a christen

Beginning just before my senior year I went through a series of trials that continued through most of my senior year. I wanted to do something for myself, and was encouraged to attend the National Catholic Youth Conference (NCYC). I decide to go, and so in January I set off for Indianapolis. Once at the conference, I listened to music, met other catholic high schoolers, and participated in workshops. I learned a lot about my faith, and about different forms of worship. This was something that I had not previously been exposed to, as while I was a member of one of the largest parishes in Central Ohio, it is a very traditional parish that had not exposed me to much more than the basic teachings of the church, and also had not demonstrated

In recent days I had the opportunity to go back to North Carolina for a few short days. There, with a heavy heart from a loss in the family, I had nothing else to look towards. I’ve always heard of individuals finding peace, faith, blessings, and love of Christ from attending church. I’ve never been a person who put their faith into a higher power. As I was growing up my parents never wanted to force me into any religion without me knowing everything about it and choosing which route to take on my own. As the years treaded on, I never bothered myself to learn about the many different religions and what each stands for. So I used this opportunity as mine to attend church for the very first time. I attended the Roman Catholic services held

Growing up I was always told religion was false and that I was above my friends who were Christians because I believed in science. My mom was raised by Catholics, but when she graduated High School, she vowed to never be religious again. My father enjoyed feeling more elite over the “religious plebeians” that worked for him. I remember having an argument with Victoria Henderson in 3rd grade because I believed in The Big Bang and she was a creationist. Everyone took Victoria’s side, and I learned it was better to just not talk about religion. In high school, I began reaching out of my comfort zone, and also questioning what my parents had ingrained on me as a person. My first religious experience was dating a boy named Luis who was Catholic, as my mother was raised. He was only allowed to date Catholic girls, so I

I was raised in a very strict (but loving) household that was embedded with faith. My family was first Catholic, but my parents left the Catholic Church and became non-denominational. My childhood revolved around our Christian faith and it was a part of every decision and activity I was involved in. At the time our faith was ‘works based’ rather than ‘grace based’. Though I am so thankful for that Christian foundation, it was a toxic concoction for my OCD/scrupulosity. I began to fear God, my parents and any authority figure in my life.

Since we are children we are told what religion we practice or should be influenced by , but when did we truly get an option to explore and learn our own faith? I have and extended diversity, when it comes to different cultures, religions, and even personalities. Both of my parents claim to be catholic but we never really practiced our religion. I wasn't knowledgeable of catholicism or the bible, i just knew there was a God. That changed for me when i was ten years old. My little sister almost didn't make it at birth, reason being is that her heart wasn't completely formed. However, the doctors managed to save her life, and it was the happiest yet scariest moments for me and still is, but the dread doesn't stop there. I spent most of my childhood in

As a child I was forced into a religion I knew absolutely nothing about. My mother woke me up early every Sunday and got me ready for mass. I hated it. I didn’t comprehend why I was being forced to attend and listen to some stranger talk for hours, about something I did not understand. This continued for a couple years until I was around 8 years old and my family became inactive. Although we became inactive, our faith still lingered and we continued to pray every night, and not leave our homes without a blessing. A couple years later I felt as if something was calling me to attend the church. I started

I was raised as a Roman Catholic. This meant waking up early on weekends, going to church every Sunday and the days of obligation, and attending catechism, no matter how much I protested. It also meant being unhappy. I detested most of the rules. I did not believe in an almighty God that could give me free will, but wanted to limit my actions. I also could not stand to believe in someone who could kill one of my best friends and continue the world like nothing had happened. All I wanted was to be able to live, not just survive. Six months after I was confirmed, I stopped going to church. After that I did not know what to believe. God was supposed to be watching over me. Instead, I felt He had forgotten my name.

Growing up in a Christian Orthodox religion I went to church every sunday and attended sunday school as well as all church related festivals. Going to college and working became an excuse on why I stopped attending church regularly. When college came along I absolutely hated the idea of taking a religion class as a required course. I was so close minded and complained relentlessly about taking this course. As time went on in class I told myself, “there is no way this professor is going to turn me into a Lutheran.” Little did I know my professor was trying to open the doors of knowledge and expand my views in both science and religion. I came into theology one hundred and one believing I knew everything there was to be known about God. I was arrogant and foolish. My perspectives were so narrow, like my mind. I did not allow my professor to enlighten me with his knowledge. I believed that since I passed my tenth grade Sunday School exam there was no more to learn, or no mind great

When I was younger, I would go to church with my Grandma and attend Catholic religion classes to prepare for my first communion. At the time, I was happy to go; I looked forward to those days. Around the summer before fourth grade, I stopped attending religion classes since they were at a time which conflicted with my schedule. From then on, much to my grandparents dismay, I slowly stopped going to church. After a few years of not attending religion classes and church, I started to notice my own beliefs didn’t match those of the church. Being away from the church gave me time to explore ideas other than those of which I had been taught all of my life. In sixth grade, I remember being curious and wondering if my beliefs matched those of another religion. My interest was sparked by my love of history and culture. I discovered that Celtic Pagans have similar beliefs. Celtic Paganism, specifically, is a polytheistic religion from the Iron Age practiced by the ancient Celts. I learned about specifics of the

I grew up Catholic but didn't fully grasp what the gospel was as a child. When I was about 7 years old I discovered my mother's constant absences resulted from her alcoholism. She was in and out of hospitals as I grew up, and it was hard trying to find my way. It became very difficult for me, while my mother was searching for her purpose at the bottom of a bottle, I found myself searching for mine from the attention. I thought that if I get people to notice me. I thought people would care. There was a hole in my heart and I tried my hardest to fill it with the attention I was getting from others. I didn't feel like there was any hope in this vicious dark cycle of seeking attention that lasted for a small moment and going home to feel unloved, uncared for, nothing.

I used to belong to a specific domination within the Christian community because of my family and my ex husband. Those beliefs were very strict and somewhat rigid that if you didn’t do X then you wouldn’t be saved. Due to certain circumstances, I started to challenge those beliefs. I started to understand that I did not fully understand what they meant, I was just going along with what I was told. Therefore, through some personal self exploration I have learned that my own beliefs do not align exactly with what I was taught or rather told how it was. I have learned more now to appreciate different belief systems and it can be more of a personal experience than what is socially acceptable by certain

I believe that my siblings conformed to the idea of being Catholics. That fueled the fire for me to be expressive about the doubts I had in this religion. I began to just say that I was an atheist and around this age there is a large portion of teenagers that are trying to rebel against their parents. I was invested in proving that I was right and that everyone should be able to see what I believe or why I believe it. As I got older I became more humble about my views and what I believed in, I stopped being so upfront about what I thought was right or wrong. One of the main reasons was that it was brought to my attention that everyone has their own personal reasons for what they believe in and just because I don’t agree with it doesn’t mean I shouldn’t respect it. A break through moment was when I had a conversation with my sister about God and the concept of him watching over everyone, and she told me that she believed in God because it was reassurance, she needed to believe that there was something beyond her and that she wasn’t entirely alone in this world. I understood what she was saying and at that point I respected her views. I also realized that in this point of my life I can’t be at peace with that. I’ve struggled with a lot of things in my life and it just wasn’t logical to me it still really isn’t clear to me. I continue to venture out and inform myself about different religions and

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