How were you raised spiritually?

[Be_Evergreen]

Everyone has got their story, and maybe it would be interesting to see where everyone has come from to get to where they are!

To get things going, consider things such as: How were you brought up knowing God? Was there one family member or friend who served as your spiritual role model? Did you grow up with little or no faith, and find it years later? How? Were your parents open to questions?

 

[keep_on_smiling]

When my sisters and I were young my parents took us to church a few times, but stopped going for whatever reason. Just going those couple times was enough to put a seed within me and my sister's hearts. We used to beg our mum to take us to church and she would always say 'someday'. We knew there was a God and that He loved us. We knew we had to accept Him into our lives and such, but that was as far it went for years. We didn't grown up in a "Godly" family, but it wasn't a secret that God existed.

My nana (grandmother) was the person that we went to when we had questions about the Lord. She would always answer them for us. When we would stay the weekends with her occasionally, she would take us to church! I loved that! It was also great because the owners of our house, though from Massachusetts, they would come up every summer and have a VBS. My parents didn't want us going to the church, so we were unable to go with everyone else, but these girls asked if they could come to our house. For years they would come to our home for a week after they had regular VBS hours. We learned a lot and accepted the Lord into our hearts then. Eventually we were able to go to the church with everyone else. It came so that we got to teaching with them because we had been with them for so many years. What a blessing that was!

When I was 16 years old my mum went through a really tough spiritual struggle and the Lord showed her that she needed to change her life. She grew up knowing the Lord and technically walked away from Him. It was near Christmas that year that we started going to church and our walks in the Lord changed greatly. From then on we all have (my sisters and mum, not dad) been growing in our relationships with the Lord.

I find it incredible how the Lord makes things take place. Everything truly happens for a reason and now it's fun to look back and see how insignificant events back then were truly crucial in getting us to where we are now.

 

[keep_on_smiling]

BeEvergreen- What's your story?

 

[Be_Evergreen]

When my sisters and I were young my parents took us to church a few times, but stopped going for whatever reason. Just going those couple times was enough to put a seed within me and my sister's hearts. We used to beg our mum to take us to church and she would always say 'someday'. We knew there was a God and that He loved us. We knew we had to accept Him into our lives and such, but that was as far it went for years. We didn't grown up in a "Godly" family, but it wasn't a secret that God existed.

My nana (grandmother) was the person that we went to when we had questions about the Lord. She would always answer them for us. When we would stay the weekends with her occasionally, she would take us to church! I loved that! It was also great because the owners of our house, though from Massachusetts, they would come up every summer and have a VBS. My parents didn't want us going to the church, so we were unable to go with everyone else, but these girls asked if they could come to our house. For years they would come to our home for a week after they had regular VBS hours. We learned a lot and accepted the Lord into our hearts then. Eventually we were able to go to the church with everyone else. It came so that we got to teaching with them because we had been with them for so many years. What a blessing that was!

When I was 16 years old my mum went through a really tough spiritual struggle and the Lord showed her that she needed to change her life. She grew up knowing the Lord and technically walked away from Him. It was near Christmas that year that we started going to church and our walks in the Lord changed greatly. From then on we all have (my sisters and mum, not dad) been growing in our relationships with the Lord.

I find it incredible how the Lord makes things take place. Everything truly happens for a reason and now it's fun to look back and see how insignificant events back then were truly crucial in getting us to where we are now.

It is funny as time goes on, the master plan seems to click into place. And then sometimes just when we think we know what's going on, God shows us new things and leads us in more interesting directions! The whole life span is full of struggle and redemption, it's truly beautiful. I'm very glad that God led your sisters, your mother and you in the right direction- to Him!

My story was as such:
I was raised going to church with my family, a Catholic church. We would go every Sunday and on holidays, although only my brother (who would serve as my spiritual role model) would talk about the Bible and prayer with me. My mother started associating church with bad things however (ex: the negativity and sadness that can be associated with the loss of a loved one) and decided to stop going. My father, divorced from my mother at this point, would sometimes go to Sunday mass with me.

I went through CCD classes, and grew up with a love and thirst for God- it just clicked that God loved me, and that I had to strive towards living a Christ-like life. I took the workbooks very seriously, and even wrote when I was 9 that I wanted Cupid to give me a Valentine from Jesus . I went to church every Sunday that I could up through 10th grade, when I was Confirmed. I stopped going to mass on Sundays when my father died in my senior year of high school.

I slowly started exploring the Bible for myself. I found that perhaps I did not belong in the church that I grew up in as I felt question in my heart, and needed to find a new path. This led me to where I am now. I currently attend the Catholic church on my college campus, but see myself as nondenominational- I study the Bible privately, try to be active in community work and I speak with my brother as a spiritual consultant. Maybe one day I will feel myself click with another spiritual community, but for now I feel as if this is where I need to be!

 

[CC_Bride]

"...when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also. Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." 2 Timothy 1:5-7

This bible passage is very inspirational to me, as my upbringing and conversion to Christ was similar to Timothy's. My grandmother and mother are Christians, and with myself and my husband we are the only Christians in our family. I was raised without knowing my biological father, then being raised by an abusive non Christian (though Im not saying Tim's Dad was abusive, just that he was a non christian and presumed dead). My Mom and Grandmother both taught me the Father heart of God very early in my life to help ease the absence of my natural father. However, I didn't fully understand Jesus and commit my life to him til I was 13 through the mentoring of an elderly godly couple. Having only observed abusive or skewed marriages in my life, I was inspired and taught what a real genuine biblical marriage looked like through that couple. This couple invested in me and through their drama ministry we did road trips together and they provided opportunities for me to be taught the bible, guided my life choices, gently rebuking me for my sin and comforted me in a safe environment from my (unsafe) home environment. As tribute to my mother, grandmother, and mentors, I got baptised and later married in the church they led me to.

 

[Saul_Durian]

I didn't even hear about religion or the bible or Jesus until I was older, like maybe 8. My mom was baptist, and she went to church. But she wanted me to make my own decisions. So she didn't force feed anything to me.

 

[Grandpa]

My dad raised us to be agnostic/atheist. We never went to church or talked about God except for my Dad to tell us he didn't believe there was one.

I never argued with my dad. But I always had the feeling since I was roughly 4-5 that God was watching me. I always felt that there was much more to what was going on here than what we could see. I always wondered about it and I always wanted to find out the deeper/hidden meaning to things.

When I was younger I just knew that every religion had a little truth to it, and if I could detect each small truth that they contained I could put them all together and I would have the whole thing. So I went about studying the different religions. I didn't really come up with anything except each religion kind of fit the region it was in. If I didn't know Jesus and I was just to pick a religion I probably would have gone with Buddhism or Taoism.

But Christianity kept coming to me, drawing me. As a child it was just a little here and a little there. Then in 2006, after a brush in with what I think was evil, I picked up the bible and determined to read the whole thing from cover to cover.

It took me about 2 yrs to read the whole thing the first time. Then about 1 yr the second time. Then about 6 months the 3rd and 4th time. I like to read the whole thing once and then when I'm finished I read just the NT again and then I start over.

The bible is what the Lord used primarily to draw me to Him. It was when I prayed for the Lord to baptize me with His Holy Spirit that I really started to understand the bible. There are a lot of really confusing doctrines out there, so I am really glad that we can trust the Holy Spirit to guide us and teach us. Don't ever let anyone tell you that the Holy Spirit can't teach you. He Can. Just ask.

 

[loveme1]

Worldly ways..........

 

[SkinnyGuy]

I was raised Catholic and went to a Catholic elementary school and went to mass two times a week for school and once on the weekends with my dad, brother, and sister. But I got tired of it and ended up going to public school for middle and high school. I've always believed there was a God, and I think going to a public school was the best decision I could've made. It opened my eyes to way the world and people are. I still do go to church every know and then but I firmly believe I don't have to go to a building to worship God. It also installed in me the beliefs that I believe in today. I will proudly admit that I am for same-sex marriage, and that I am pro-choice, or that I am accepting of other faiths and don't judge. The person who really helped me realize all this was my Dad, who is a devout Catholic and one of my teachers from High School who happens to be openly gay, happily married to his partner of 20 years, and also a very devout Catholic.

 

[becky1984]

Everyone has got their story, and maybe it would be interesting to see where everyone has come from to get to where they are!

To get things going, consider things such as: How were you brought up knowing God? Was there one family member or friend who served as your spiritual role model? Did you grow up with little or no faith, and find it years later? How? Were your parents open to questions?

When I was a growing up I would visit my aunt and uncle in Ontario for the summer and we went to church and I thought it was really boring and didn't understand until I was 13. Their cat got loose from the house and we couldn't find her so they prayed and called the spca and then the cat came back almost a month later a week before I went home and my aunt told me I was really happy because I love animals. She explained to me that God answers prayers and that hes with us and asked if I wanted to accept Jesus into my life and I said yes so she helped me to pray. I still didn't like church until I was about 21 I started going to church near my house and now I love going to church. My aunt and uncle are my spiritual role model and them and I are the only ones in my family who are christians. I was baptised at 23 and my faith gets stronger everyday.

 

[Jullianna]

My mother and grandmother were godly women who influenced me greatly. They weren't perfect and made their share of mistakes, but they knew and trusted the Lord intimately, and time after time I saw Him work miracles in their lives.

I began attending Sunday School as a tiny girl and have always loved it, especially praise music. I began singing for the Lord in my early teens in churches in our region.

I've had several mentors who really touched my life, most of them Sunday School teachers. Presently, my Pastor is extremely encouraging and inspiring, as are the believers here in CC.

For me I guess the most important way of learning about God has been living with and watching His people live in His love everyday for all of their lives. It gave me a hunger for His Word so that I could live for Him as strongly as they did.

 

[shekaniah]

I love reading these posts!

I was about 5yrs old, when I wandered out to play...ended up at the public park...where people were meeting in the recreation hall for church.
Looking for food, I asked if I could come to the party. Of course they said yes! I love how God changed the path for my life!
(By the way...I did get juice and cookies)

 

[TheKringledOne]

My family didn't even talk to me about religion when I was growing up. The first time I remembering hearing a discussion concerning religion with other people was when there was when two people were arguing about Islam and Jesus when I was around the age of 10. Before that discussion I thought that religion was an ancient practice that was done by kingdoms long past like that of ancient Egypt. My uncle, who lived half way across the country, turned out to be a pastor and I talked to him a few times about the subject after discovering that. I never found any 'faith' in supernatural forces later in my life. I am very happy that I know have a better understanding of spiritual/religious mindsets than I did when I was younger.

 

[dmdave17]

I was more or less "saved" when I was a young teenager. I still remember the church camp when I walked to the front after the service and gave myself to Jesus. Unfortunately, that was the last time I thought about it for around 40 years.

I was very much a child of the sixties. I bought into the "new age" thinking wholeheartedly. With the devil's prompting, I embarked on a life of sin and corruption; justifying it every step of the way with the "sayings of the day".

My father dies when I was five years old. I have been told that this had a negative influence on my relationship with God, since I never had a chance to experience a father's love. My mother was a "compartmentalized" Christian; devotions in the morning, church on Sunday, then pretty much forget it the rest of the time.

Like so many of my generation, I had a skewed notion of what God was all about. It wasn't that I didn't believe in Him, it was just that my understanding of Him was so far off base that I had no chance of establishing a true relationship. I still turned to Him in times of trouble but in between, it was easy to put Him on the very back burner. After all, I knew everything I needed to know about His thinking. (This attitude was helped along, no doubt, by the alcoholic haze that the devil kept me in for about 20 years of my life.)

Finally, a series of serious health incidents shook me awake. I have no doubt that God sent them to me as a final wakeup call. Like 'Grandpa' (who seems too young to be one ), I began studying scripture. As God revealed Himself to me through His Word, I grew closer and closer to Him. I have many serious regrets about my life, but I know I have been saved through the blood of Jesus Christ, and I give thanks every day to a loving God who didn't give up on me after I had pretty much given up on Him.

God bless.

 

[keshka]

My parents are very liberal and open-minded: they deliberately avoided trying to coerce me into any kind of world-view... I found my own way.

This is good - I think. Maybe it's better to weigh up all the options, knowing you've made a proper and informed choice.

That said, and probably due to my carefree upbringing, I'm not a ultra-Bible-literalist (and often get shouted down in the Bible Discussion segment of this forum) - as a scientist myself (a doctor or Pharmacology) I'm satisfied by science's explanation of evolution, the Big Bang, etc. And coming from a part of the UK that is extremely culturally diverse, I have no problems with other races, beliefs or ways of life.

This has been a bit problematic in the various churches I've visited: I've been shunned by a many hard-line Christians who are geuniely shocked when I tell them I think that God caused the Big Bang, rather than created a fully-formed Universe in under a week.

To be honest, I'm not all that bothered what other people think of me - I'm happy with my own beliefs, they give me comfort and yet still dovetail with the observable world and scientific method.

Thankfully my own local church is really progessive, we have a wonderful lady vicar and everyone is really nice. I play the drums in the church band - I really love hymns (especially Christmas hymns), and I fancy myself as a bit of a Meg White!

Yeah, to me hymns are the most important part of my life. I love music, and hymns just really touch me - moreso than the Bible itself, or words from my vicar... hymns are just so uplifting and emotional to me, and I think it's when I'm drumming along to 'Lord of the Dance' or other brilliant songs that I feel closest to God.

 

[Nancyer]

My family went to church occasionally, and it grew less and less frequent as my sister and I got older. Mom worked full time as well as dad and didn't like being away from home that much. My spiritual search began around 2004 when my husband and I separated. I went through New Earth, Wayne Dyer, The Secret. But one day I landed on Joyce Meyer's tv broadcast and couldn't turn it off. Joyce was using Scripture to back it all up that Jesus and God were there to help me, be with me, love me and never let me down. And that God had a plan for my life that was beyond anything I could imagine for myself. It all made sense. I started attending church with my daughter in Jan. 2009 and was fortunate to find a wonderful congregation and pastor. What I realized was that when I was young and we went to church no one ever talked about the sermon, the message, anything. We had a Bible and I knew what drawer it was kept in, but we never read it or talked about it. I made a not nice comment once about something on tv about the bible and my dad got very mad, told me not to talk about the bible like that. I was stunned. I had no idea he actually believed in it or felt it meant anything because I saw no evidence of that. When I began attending this church I knew I wanted to be involved, learn, have it be more than and hour on Sunday morning. Now I read my bible almost daily, listen to teachings on tv and radio, attend Bible Study at church once or twice a week. I get great peace and joy from scripture and the holy spirit.

 

[LANCY]

I was raised by a single mother who did not raise us in faith. I was introduced to going to church when a Baptist church would send a bus to pick up kids to go to sunday school. I loved it. One night in 2nd or 3rd grade, I switch the channel to this preacher talking about being born again. He asked us to call if we wanted to profess our faith. I remember the Holy Spirit filling my heart at that moment. I called and professed my faith. I think it is a shame when people do not recognize when the Holy Spirit is upon them. I've tried to explain it to my husband but he looks at me like I am crazy.

 

[Grandpa]

I was more or less "saved" when I was a young teenager. I still remember the church camp when I walked to the front after the service and gave myself to Jesus. Unfortunately, that was the last time I thought about it for around 40 years.

I was very much a child of the sixties. I bought into the "new age" thinking wholeheartedly. With the devil's prompting, I embarked on a life of sin and corruption; justifying it every step of the way with the "sayings of the day".

My father dies when I was five years old. I have been told that this had a negative influence on my relationship with God, since I never had a chance to experience a father's love. My mother was a "compartmentalized" Christian; devotions in the morning, church on Sunday, then pretty much forget it the rest of the time.

Like so many of my generation, I had a skewed notion of what God was all about. It wasn't that I didn't believe in Him, it was just that my understanding of Him was so far off base that I had no chance of establishing a true relationship. I still turned to Him in times of trouble but in between, it was easy to put Him on the very back burner. After all, I knew everything I needed to know about His thinking. (This attitude was helped along, no doubt, by the alcoholic haze that the devil kept me in for about 20 years of my life.)

Finally, a series of serious health incidents shook me awake. I have no doubt that God sent them to me as a final wakeup call. Like 'Grandpa' (who seems too young to be one ), I began studying scripture. As God revealed Himself to me through His Word, I grew closer and closer to Him. I have many serious regrets about my life, but I know I have been saved through the blood of Jesus Christ, and I give thanks every day to a loving God who didn't give up on me after I had pretty much given up on Him.

God bless.

That same kind of thing happened to me when I was a teenager. Probably about 13 or 14yrs old I was staying at a friends house for the week during summer and his parents were Christians. They took us to church on sunday and near the end the pastor asked if anyone wanted to be born again or accept the Lord Jesus or a question similar to that. I was the only one that walked up. The pastor had me repeat some things like a prayer he was saying. It was only my 2nd or 3rd experience in a church in my life.

I was so excited when I got home to tell my dad I was a born again christian. But he was mad at me and my friends dad. He yelled at me and then called up my friends dad and yelled at him. I never brought it up again at home. I didn't read the bible from then until I was about 18. And then I only read the NT and didn't really understand it very well.

About 25 yrs after this the Lord started really drawing me to Him. All during this time from 13-38 yrs old I would have told you I was a christian if you would have asked. But I didn't pray, I didn't read the bible and I didn't go to church. I just said a prayer with a pastor in a church 25yrs previous... My new self looking back on my old self would tell you if I was a christian back then I was the worlds worst one... Well me and dmdave17 might have been tied...