This past weekend I had the privilege of attending my church's women's retreat. My intent of going was to support my mother because she is trying to get more involved in the church and to meet more people. It is not as easy for her as she is a bit on the shy side, so she would never attend such an event without me.
I didn't think much of attending the retreat because I knew I was going to be the youngest one there and that I probably wouldn't fit in so much. But I was rather surprised by my experience. The first night we did some silly skits and that was really fun. By then we had met up with our small groups for the weekend and we were given a bag of wacky items to use in the skits. Some of the things in the bags were pretty crazy. Some of the bags even had bras in them! The next morning we discussed something that really spoke to me. The speaker was Rev. Dr. Mary Naegali, a well known pastor in my area. She spoke about how sometimes we feel too unworthy to belong to Jesus. She gave the example about how sometimes we will avoid praying because we feel we have done too much wrong in order to do so. I was startled because it was exactly how I feel, practically all the time. It's one of those sort of things where you feel like you're the only one who experiences that, but now I know I am not. This was an important thing for me to hear as praying has always been my weak spot spiritually, and now I have no reason not to pray, I just have to get myself to do it. For the final day we had a church service (essentially) and I got drafted to direct the "dramatic scripture reading" of 1 Samuel 17. It went rather well and the audience laughed a lot. The women playing David and Goliath got very involved and did a good job. My mother had a good time as well. She talked with lots of people and now knows a lot of names and faces. Hopefully going to church every Sunday will feel more like home for her. She particularly liked the arts and crafts. It was definitely all God's work having given us this opportunity to go on the retreat. I was thinking just the other day that I am not sure what book of the Bible is most popular among people so I thought I'd ask. Feel free to leave a comment below to explain the reasoning behind your favorite book! The way to fight the Christian battle is to gain as much knowledge and ideas surrounding Christianity and other religious concepts as much as possible.
Obviously, the most important way is to pray and read the Bible. Hearing directly from God is the best way to gain understanding of Christianity and all that God intended for us to believe. So if there is anywhere you want to start, that is what I would recommend as the solid foundation of your faith. The next thing I recommend, although Bible and prayer definitely come first, is to read works by Christian authors to get their take on things. Also attend churches of different denominations and listen to Christian talks in general to get a feel for what Christianity is in all aspects. After that and when you are firm in your faith, it would not be a terrible idea to read/understand secular view points and view points from other religions that way you are able to see the big picture and how other people think even though it is not necessarily what you believe. For these ideas, I recommend reading both fiction and non-fiction books. The non-fiction books tell you the concepts and describe them in detail while the fiction books introduce you to the lifestyles with a fictional example. To gain knowledge helps you to be a better rounded Christian, more open-minded and understanding of the vast variety of spiritual matters. "The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge; the ears of the wise seek it out." Proverbs 18:15 There is a lot of confusion over whether God communicates directly to us. Many books have been written on the matter. I have no idea how rare it is, but I know He has spoken to me at least once.
Only until recently did I begin to have friends and a social life. And I don't say this in search for pity. This is me being completely honest. I was alone so-to-speak. I did not socialize because it gave me anxiety and quite frankly, I just wasn't sure how to go about it. In the midst of it, I came upon a boy in class who seemed pretty nice. Before long I began to date him. It was a rather painful relation. He never seemed satisfied with who I was and would pick fights with me about trying to get me to change things about myself. It seemed like there was nothing about me that he was satisfied with and that he wanted to make me into who he wanted me to be. I would cry every other day because it hurt so much. He forced me into doing things that I simply did not want to do. And for that reason, I faltered in my relationship with Christ. Because I had done some very intimate things with this guy, I felt that I had to stay with him for as long as possible, just because it felt so wrong. While in reality, I knew from the second day that I was not meant to be with this person. After less than three months, I went online and saw pictures of him doing drugs. I could barely breathe. That's when I began to feel God's presence moving in me faster than ever before. I broke up with the guy as I felt it was right. Then it randomly occurred to me to be more active and I made an immediate decision to attend my church young adult group the next night, which was the strangest thing since I had never even considered going. I went to the event and I had a rather pleasant time. I felt a peace in being there and something felt right. They were having a summer retreat the next week and were recruiting me to go. I told them I would take a few days to think about it. However, by the next night I knew I was supposed to go on the trip. And I did, and then made some good friends that today are my best friends. God pushed me along the whole way. Even though I have only felt God so strongly once, it was enough to keep me going for a long time. In that time I truly needed to see God's immediate direction and he delivered. The rest is history and for the future I know he has me covered. |
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