My Story...Feel free to share yours

[eies3]

Hi, my name is Eileen and i made this forum so that people could share they're own Christian journies. They can be as long or as short as you want, it YOUR story.

My story starts off before i was even born. My parents we in a small church that had only started off but had around 10 stong believers. Then it grew all of the sudden. So thats the foundation of my Christiany then i was brought up into the community, being the babyi didnt know what was going on but Gods presence was still there. I started growing up and when praise and worship was happening i just sat next to my parents watching and wondering what on earth was going on.
Then we took a break from the group, my parents never told me why but we stlil kept the faith going. With family rosary and prayer and the usual sunday mass. I then became an altar server, oit was weird because girls were not usually altar serving then. I altar served for about 8 years, i still do now but not as often because im doing other things during mass.
Then we returned to the group, and what a change that was. I made so many new friends and met old friends. Then the group started a Childrens Bible Study group. At first we totally didn't want to go, but then we grew to enjoy it. I was now not afraid to say to people, hey im in a Childrens Bible Study Group and not be ashamed of it. It really made a change in my life.
Then the time came when i grew too "old" for the childrens group and joined the Youth Group. What an even more enormous change that was. My friends and I were the first people to move from Children to youth with-in the group. Youth was the biggest change ever. I can;t imagine my life with out it. It was when i first attended a Youth camp at the start of the year. It was the funnest and best experience of my life. What really inspired me was the music. It was the most sensatoinal experience that i can't explain with words. Then i attended montly youth groups sessions and youth seminars and even started listening to the talks during the family sessions. My biggest change was from becoming a child into one of the leaders for the children. I now help out with the Childrens group. I even started a band who play some of the songs from the group at school hopefully to inspire students one day.
That's my story for now and now my biggest goal is World Youth Day in Sydney. Im from Melbourne so yeah.

I'd like to hear other people stories because i think that a Christian Journey can only be your and God's alone. God Bless all!!!  

[PhaseBurn]

Hiya, my name is unimportant, and since you want a story, here's mine...

I was born into a catholic family, and baptized before I had a clue what was going on. I spent the next 11 years being brainwashed by my church, parents, and my catholic school, until I learned the truth, and how to think for myself.

About that time, I started rejecting the religion they forced upon me, and questioned everybody and everything in life - I became bitter, cynical, and sarcastic, what with people telling me I was going to burn in hell, that I had to believe in god and Jesus or else, etc...

I'd been involved with computers since I was 6, and on-line since I was 9, so about this time, and for the next several years, I turned to on-line chat rooms, forums, and games to express myself, and met a number of people who told me to seek what's right for me - something my parents, school, and church forbid... I started studying the various religions of the world, past and present, and I'm not overly fond of the vast majority of them, but I know a fair bit about them now and am a better person for understanding their culture.

These days, I don't consider myself a christian (haven't since I was 12), but I respect those who do. Some of my best friends are christian, and they respect me enough to let me walk my path, and I respect them enough to walk theirs. There's a much (much) longer post about my spiritual side on page 2 of the guild's forums if you care about it, but this is my story. I'm quite happy with who I am, and I post in forums such as this, not to cause dissent and draw people away from their faith, but to ask them to open their mind to another possible point of view, and reaffirm their faith if they still don't agree, or see another side of a situation they may not have considered before... Not to mention some of my christian friends post here smile  

[lordstar]

PhaseBurn

Hiya, my name is unimportant, and since you want a story, here's mine...

I was born into a catholic family, and baptized before I had a clue what was going on. I spent the next 11 years being brainwashed by my church, parents, and my catholic school, until I learned the truth, and how to think for myself.

About that time, I started rejecting the religion they forced upon me, and questioned everybody and everything in life - I became bitter, cynical, and sarcastic, what with people telling me I was going to burn in hell, that I had to believe in god and Jesus or else, etc...

I'd been involved with computers since I was 6, and on-line since I was 9, so about this time, and for the next several years, I turned to on-line chat rooms, forums, and games to express myself, and met a number of people who told me to seek what's right for me - something my parents, school, and church forbid... I started studying the various religions of the world, past and present, and I'm not overly fond of the vast majority of them, but I know a fair bit about them now and am a better person for understanding their culture.

These days, I don't consider myself a christian (haven't since I was 12), but I respect those who do. Some of my best friends are christian, and they respect me enough to let me walk my path, and I respect them enough to walk theirs. There's a much (much) longer post about my spiritual side on page 2 of the guild's forums if you care about it, but this is my story. I'm quite happy with who I am, and I post in forums such as this, not to cause dissent and draw people away from their faith, but to ask them to open their mind to another possible point of view, and reaffirm their faith if they still don't agree, or see another side of a situation they may not have considered before... Not to mention some of my christian friends post here smile

Only two big differences between your story and mine

1) My parents were cool with me finding my own path
2) I am still bitter, cynical, and sarcastic

Nuns haunt me in my dreams
It’s creepy  

[PhaseBurn]

lordstar

2) I am still bitter, cynical, and sarcastic

I still am, as well, but I keep it in check *most* of the time smile  

[eies3]

PhaseBurn

Hiya, my name is unimportant, and since you want a story, here's mine...

I was born into a catholic family, and baptized before I had a clue what was going on. I spent the next 11 years being brainwashed by my church, parents, and my catholic school, until I learned the truth, and how to think for myself.

About that time, I started rejecting the religion they forced upon me, and questioned everybody and everything in life - I became bitter, cynical, and sarcastic, what with people telling me I was going to burn in hell, that I had to believe in god and Jesus or else, etc...

I'd been involved with computers since I was 6, and on-line since I was 9, so about this time, and for the next several years, I turned to on-line chat rooms, forums, and games to express myself, and met a number of people who told me to seek what's right for me - something my parents, school, and church forbid... I started studying the various religions of the world, past and present, and I'm not overly fond of the vast majority of them, but I know a fair bit about them now and am a better person for understanding their culture.

These days, I don't consider myself a christian (haven't since I was 12), but I respect those who do. Some of my best friends are christian, and they respect me enough to let me walk my path, and I respect them enough to walk theirs. There's a much (much) longer post about my spiritual side on page 2 of the guild's forums if you care about it, but this is my story. I'm quite happy with who I am, and I post in forums such as this, not to cause dissent and draw people away from their faith, but to ask them to open their mind to another possible point of view, and reaffirm their faith if they still don't agree, or see another side of a situation they may not have considered before... Not to mention some of my christian friends post here smile

Like your story i was bitter about religion all the time especially when i was FORCED to altar serve on hot days reaching about 40 degrees celcius ( i live in Australia) even now i still give up when im epspecially angry with anyone. In those cases i always seem to blame God. But when i finally calm down i seek God. But sometime i expet too much from God and get thrown off religion for a long time.  

[tep]

I was born into a Christian family and during my very early years I did not care for church much, yet, I still believed and loved God and Jesus. Before and during my years of turning into a teenager, I didn't care much about church, but around maybe seventh or eighth grade, I had started to pray. I guess I never really noticed that God was calling to me until (not to sure if this is 100% accurate) about a year and a half ago. I have been praying ever since seventh or eighth grade and I love believing in God and Jesus Christ. It's the greatest thing to ever happen to me.

About four or five months ago, I was reading in 1 Corinthians and I found a chapter about Spiritual Gifts. I had read it and found that I have the Spiritual Gift of Faith and let me tell you, it is absolutely amazing. If you would like to read about Spiritual Gifts, I found them in 1 Corinthians 12. The Spiritual Gift of Faith is verse 9 of that chapter.

For a few months now I have been wanting to go to church and I have started part of my family in going back to church. There is a small local church in a nearby town, but I would love to go to this Christian center in a local city, but my parents don't like to go there because it is to far away. I personally think that that is a lame excuse to not go to an amazing church, but, what can I do. They're my parents.

So in short, God has called to me, I have answered Him.  

[PhaseBurn]

eies3

Like your story i was bitter about religion all the time especially when i was FORCED to altar serve on hot days reaching about 40 degrees celcius ( i live in Australia) even now i still give up when im epspecially angry with anyone. In those cases i always seem to blame God. But when i finally calm down i seek God. But sometime i expet too much from God and get thrown off religion for a long time.

I learned to view "god" as a creation of mankind, rather than the other way around. I see man as a creature that needs to blame others to feel better about him/herself. Thus, mankind created the idea of "god" so that they could blame events they couldn't control on something. If it rains on the day I planned a picnic, obviously that isn't my fault, but if I blame something else who could have controlled it, it's easier to move past it, reschedule, and get on with life. Human beings always need to establish fault - who's at fault, who's responsible for whatever went wrong, etc, and when it isn't reasonable to blame something mortal, it was easier to create the idea of a supernatural being that *could* control the universe to blame, than to simply accept things.

Aside from that theory of mine (and I will freely admit it is just a theory), I do know that organized religion was invented by man to control others through fear. Not every religion did this, I'll admit, but the vast majority of the major ones did. After all, what better way to control your fellow man than to make him believe his soul is going to live forever and be tortured if he doesn't do XYZ in life? When you can scare a person into believing that not even death will end his suffering, he'll do whatever you want. And if you're really good, you can make him WANT to believe it, too...  

[eies3]

PhaseBurn

eies3

Like your story i was bitter about religion all the time especially when i was FORCED to altar serve on hot days reaching about 40 degrees celcius ( i live in Australia) even now i still give up when im epspecially angry with anyone. In those cases i always seem to blame God. But when i finally calm down i seek God. But sometime i expet too much from God and get thrown off religion for a long time.

I learned to view "god" as a creation of mankind, rather than the other way around. I see man as a creature that needs to blame others to feel better about him/herself. Thus, mankind created the idea of "god" so that they could blame events they couldn't control on something. If it rains on the day I planned a picnic, obviously that isn't my fault, but if I blame something else who could have controlled it, it's easier to move past it, reschedule, and get on with life. Human beings always need to establish fault - who's at fault, who's responsible for whatever went wrong, etc, and when it isn't reasonable to blame something mortal, it was easier to create the idea of a supernatural being that *could* control the universe to blame, than to simply accept things.

Aside from that theory of mine (and I will freely admit it is just a theory), I do know that organized religion was invented by man to control others through fear. Not every religion did this, I'll admit, but the vast majority of the major ones did. After all, what better way to control your fellow man than to make him believe his soul is going to live forever and be tortured if he doesn't do XYZ in life? When you can scare a person into believing that not even death will end his suffering, he'll do whatever you want. And if you're really good, you can make him WANT to believe it, too...

whoa...you really think about this stuff yeah?? But thats the thing,fear is the easiest thing to manipulate in the human mind...and its fear that drives people to do crazy things...but i believe what ive been taught...and thats what im sticking...but there is always that factor of fear in believing and trusting in religions.  

[SinfulGuillotine]

I was born into a very strict, conservative Catholic family. Religion was kind of a big deal for my family. I was baptised, confirmed, attended Catholic school until university, and all that.

I was pretty much told what to believe, and not to question any of it. As I started reaching my teen years, that didn't work so well for me. I was struggling with coming to terms with my sexuality at the time as well, and that caused a lot of conflict for me at the time. I ended up having a lot of sex and doing a lot of drugs (for all the wrong reasons; that is, I did it as an escape rather than because I actually enjoyed it) and flipped back and forth between hating God and just not believing in Him.

I met my to-be (at the time) partner when I was 17, and oddly, even though he's an atheist, he was sort of the one who led me back to believing. He's very well-versed in philosophy and pointed me in the direction of a lot of philosophical works and talked about a lot of them with me. I found it all extremely fascinating, and it made me very motivated to really start examining my own beliefs and trying to figure out some of the "big questions" in life by questioning and seeing grey areas.

I was still having a tough time with my family at this point, though. I was expected to go into a profession that really wasn't my passion, and felt like I had to keep my sexuality a secret. I felt like the "good person" they thought I was was nothing but a facade. I ended up going to school for my expected profession, but broke down halfway through my first year and tried to kill myself. My partner stopped me. That was really a turning point for me. I realised how fortunate I was to be alive, that someone had just saved my life and it couldn't just be a coincidence, and that I was being given a second chance and I needed to take advantage of it, so I got accepted to a music conservatory and started persuing what I really liked to do.

In music school, I was able to sort of search myself spiritually and develop a real identity for the first time. I explored some non-Catholic sects of Christianity, but didn't find myself all that drawn to them. In the end, I came back to Catholicism with a completely different perspective, which was really good for me.

I still have sort of mixed feelings about organised religion in general, and specifically the Catholic Church. I have to say, I really do like being part of a religious community. And as liberal as I am, I have a weird conservative side when in comes to things like church services. Something about Catholic Mass is, in my mind, so much of a more effective way to worship than what I see in a lot of Protestant churches. I'm not saying that my way or worship is the only way, but personally, the loud singing and crazy dancing and shouting just doesn't do much for me. I guess I'm just a little more reserved in that respect. So basically, it's Catholic Mass that keeps me a Catholic (not exclusively, but it's one of the bigger influences).

So I'm still not sure that I've got everything all figured out, but at the very least, I feel like I have a good relationship with God most of the time. And I guess that's what's most important.  

[PhaseBurn]

eies3

whoa...you really think about this stuff yeah?? But thats the thing,fear is the easiest thing to manipulate in the human mind...and its fear that drives people to do crazy things...but i believe what ive been taught...and thats what im sticking...but there is always that factor of fear in believing and trusting in religions.

Yes, I really think about this stuff. I have far too much time on my hands, don't I, hehe... Actually, I think a lot about my place in the universe, what's really out there, if there is or isn't a god, if I want there to be one or not, etc... What it all comes down to (for me, at least) is that I'm here right now, and that no matter what I believe, or how hard I believe it, it won't change what's really out there. As such I'm perfectly content to believe what I believe right now, which is to aspire to being the best person I can and help others whenever possible. If that isn't a good enough goal, then so be it.  

[eies3]

PhaseBurn

eies3

whoa...you really think about this stuff yeah?? But thats the thing,fear is the easiest thing to manipulate in the human mind...and its fear that drives people to do crazy things...but i believe what ive been taught...and thats what im sticking...but there is always that factor of fear in believing and trusting in religions.

Yes, I really think about this stuff. I have far too much time on my hands, don't I, hehe... Actually, I think a lot about my place in the universe, what's really out there, if there is or isn't a god, if I want there to be one or not, etc... What it all comes down to (for me, at least) is that I'm here right now, and that no matter what I believe, or how hard I believe it, it won't change what's really out there. As such I'm perfectly content to believe what I believe right now, which is to aspire to being the best person I can and help others whenever possible. If that isn't a good enough goal, then so be it.

yeah im always wondering about the existence of God too...but hey i believe in what i've been taught because ive witnessed first hand the power of God...and i might have my doubts but he comes back  

[jms_13_13]

i said the prayer when i was 6, 8, 10, and most recently at 12.
i am just opening the lotus flower of what being a Christian MEANS, but i am still my crazy, sarcastic, smart-alec, generally nuts self.
Sinful Guilotine- i go to a supposedly Christian school. i personally know 2 dealers, 2 self mutilaters, a guy who is atleast eco-goth, maybe more. this is in one class.
my friends say its worse than a public school.
hang in there, some of us can relate awfully closely. i dont do or , but ive been having some isues weith ion. hang in there!  

[mazuac]

eies3

PhaseBurn

Hiya, my name is unimportant, and since you want a story, here's mine...

I was born into a catholic family, and baptized before I had a clue what was going on. I spent the next 11 years being brainwashed by my church, parents, and my catholic school, until I learned the truth, and how to think for myself.

About that time, I started rejecting the religion they forced upon me, and questioned everybody and everything in life - I became bitter, cynical, and sarcastic, what with people telling me I was going to burn in hell, that I had to believe in god and Jesus or else, etc...

I'd been involved with computers since I was 6, and on-line since I was 9, so about this time, and for the next several years, I turned to on-line chat rooms, forums, and games to express myself, and met a number of people who told me to seek what's right for me - something my parents, school, and church forbid... I started studying the various religions of the world, past and present, and I'm not overly fond of the vast majority of them, but I know a fair bit about them now and am a better person for understanding their culture.

These days, I don't consider myself a christian (haven't since I was 12), but I respect those who do. Some of my best friends are christian, and they respect me enough to let me walk my path, and I respect them enough to walk theirs. There's a much (much) longer post about my spiritual side on page 2 of the guild's forums if you care about it, but this is my story. I'm quite happy with who I am, and I post in forums such as this, not to cause dissent and draw people away from their faith, but to ask them to open their mind to another possible point of view, and reaffirm their faith if they still don't agree, or see another side of a situation they may not have considered before... Not to mention some of my christian friends post here smile

Like your story i was bitter about religion all the time especially when i was FORCED to altar serve on hot days reaching about 40 degrees celcius ( i live in Australia) even now i still give up when im epspecially angry with anyone. In those cases i always seem to blame God. But when i finally calm down i seek God. But sometime i expet too much from God and get thrown off religion for a long time.

I have learned a couple things, and one thing is that even when your mad at God, and blame him for bad things that happen, your still having contact with him, and that's better than not having any contact with him biggrin  

[mazuac]

My Story ~

Well, I was raised Christian. But loosely. My family and I would go to church only on holidays like Easter, Christmas, and sometimes Thanksgiving. Religion was never anything to me until I was about twelve years old. That's when it began to get important to me, and that's when my life began to envelop Christianity and Christ. That is also about the time I got a computer in my room...

That's when I grew fascinated in the world around me, and what other countries were like. Then I learned the world was not a happy, fun place where people like and love one another with an occasional sadness. Of course, that idea of the world bieng like that was quickly ripped to shreds, and I began to question God.

I thought to myself "why would God let any of this happen? Is he not loving? Doesn't he care?" And then I began to learn about science and how the world was formed, and then, my whole view of God and Christianity was gone. I became a self centered athiest who critisized *sp?* Christians everywhere and every way I could. I felt superior to them, I felt like if you can't prove it, than it isn't real!

That lasted about six months until I began to fell spiritually empty. I didn't want, or believe in Christianity, or Islam or Judaism. I wanted a religion where there was no God. And I found one. Buddhism.

Then I read about Buddhism and liked it, and I began to practice it! That lasted about a month until I began to feel spirtually empty again. Then one day, I found my bible that was under my bed, and it seemed to pull me into it. But I resisted. I set the book down and left it on my dresser. Then, over the course of the next week, the bible kept tugging at me, literally. I just wanted to open and read from it. But everytime I would hold it, or open it, that feeling would leave...

Then one weekend, we went to church and there I kind of rolled my eyes at everything they told us about. Until they talked about helping the poor, and a chance to do that. After the sevice, I followed my mom over to the sign-up sheet and she asked me if I wanted to do it. I said sure, and then the guy behind it said looked at me and said "you would be a good at getting supplies for the people."

I don't know why, but that shattered the wall of resistince I had to Christianity, and when I got home, I began to read from the bible, from the New Testament, and my faith in the Lord returned to it's fullest. And... now I am a Christian who practices meditation and some of Buddhism, just for the peace and relaxation of it!

~Mazuac  

[dragongirl42391]

eies3

Hi, my name is Eileen and i made this forum so that people could share they're own Christian journies. They can be as long or as short as you want, it YOUR story.

My story starts off before i was even born. My parents we in a small church that had only started off but had around 10 stong believers. Then it grew all of the sudden. So thats the foundation of my Christiany then i was brought up into the community, being the babyi didnt know what was going on but Gods presence was still there. I started growing up and when praise and worship was happening i just sat next to my parents watching and wondering what on earth was going on.
Then we took a break from the group, my parents never told me why but we stlil kept the faith going. With family rosary and prayer and the usual sunday mass. I then became an altar server, oit was weird because girls were not usually altar serving then. I altar served for about 8 years, i still do now but not as often because im doing other things during mass.
Then we returned to the group, and what a change that was. I made so many new friends and met old friends. Then the group started a Childrens Bible Study group. At first we totally didn't want to go, but then we grew to enjoy it. I was now not afraid to say to people, hey im in a Childrens Bible Study Group and not be ashamed of it. It really made a change in my life.
Then the time came when i grew too "old" for the childrens group and joined the Youth Group. What an even more enormous change that was. My friends and I were the first people to move from Children to youth with-in the group. Youth was the biggest change ever. I can;t imagine my life with out it. It was when i first attended a Youth camp at the start of the year. It was the funnest and best experience of my life. What really inspired me was the music. It was the most sensatoinal experience that i can't explain with words. Then i attended montly youth groups sessions and youth seminars and even started listening to the talks during the family sessions. My biggest change was from becoming a child into one of the leaders for the children. I now help out with the Childrens group. I even started a band who play some of the songs from the group at school hopefully to inspire students one day.
That's my story for now and now my biggest goal is World Youth Day in Sydney. Im from Melbourne so yeah.

I'd like to hear other people stories because i think that a Christian Journey can only be your and God's alone. God Bless all!!!

OH My gosh, another girl altar server like me!!! xd xd xd Yeah, I've noticed a lot of Christian artists coming from Austrailia, God must really be moving down there! mrgreen