I'm always interested in hearing about how people came to find God in their lives, especially if faith and religion is something they'd never been raised with.
Michael and I had both been baptised as babies. Michael as a Catholic and I was baptised as a Greek Orthodox. That was Michael's last time in a church, apart from attending the obligatory weddings, christenings and funerals. I grew up attending the odd Greek Orthodox mass at Easter, and then as I got a little older I'd accompany my catholic grandmother (my yiayia) to her church each week. She was a faithful woman who loved her Lord. But for her example I wouldn't have known the church barely at all.
Then I hit my teens and it all fell to the wayside. I met Michael and we started dating and, though we for the most part did believe in God, we didn't give Him much thought. This is increasingly secular England don't you know! It's just not "cool" or politically correct any more. It's old news! And of course, we would never be "bible bashers" anyway... pah!
When we became parents we maintained that the children wouldn't be baptised unless we knew the reasons why. We didn't want it to be yet another act which had no meaning. We wanted to know what it would bring them, and why. We thought it pointless giving them a religion to follow if we didn't know anything about it ourselves. How could we expect them to know and love God if we didn't? What kind of example would we be?
It's taken the last four or five years from our initial curiosity. I'm using "curiosity" for want of a better word. In the last few years it seems we've been hearing Him more clearly. What started as a gentle nudging has grown into so much more. We've been on such a journey of learning and discovery and truth be told, it's only just beginning. There is so much more than we know or have managed to learn. And the more we learn, and the more we do, the more our hearts and minds are opened.
We are part of a wonderful church. This is the first time in our lives we've known the meaning of community. It's something so rare to find now. We find ourselves wanting to do more and more to embrace our relatively new faith and belief. And we look at everything through new eyes.
I can look back on times in my life when God was clearly at work. I just couldn't see it then. What I'd always thought of as co-incidence or fate wasn't that at all. Now I know that God has a plan for each of us.
I think back to times when life felt terribly, frighteningly dark and felt so horribly alone and vulnerable and scared. Would I have felt the same way if I allowed myself to know God then? And I look back on how the darkness in those times gradually lifted, and on how things changed as a result of them and now I can see that it was all part of a larger plan. All the hurt, all the heart-shattering pain that cut so very deep at the time was for a reason. Without feeling that I could never know how to feel grateful, truly genuinely grateful and happy for what was to come.
I've seen how prayer has worked in our lives, I've seen how God has provided for us time and time again and I've seen how things we thought were impossible are actually such small issues to Him.
We are still learning patience and accepting that everything is dealt with in His time, not ours.
We are still learning about having faith in times of struggles, when we feel so very low. Only now we know that we aren't alone no matter what. When our children wake up crying after having a bad dream, or when they have a fever and we're trying to coax them to drink their water and take their medicines, or when we are trying to persuade them to eat their healthy meal before their treat, we're showing them guidance and love and that we will never leave them no matter what. We want to reassure them that we are here, no matter how old they are, they are still our children and we will always, always love them.
We're having to re-learn that lesson on a much higher level. We are God's children and He will always, always love us. He will never leave us. And what a realisation that is!
Our children are growing up learning about their faith, reading and understanding the Bible and know God and Jesus. There is meaning to the stories and to dates on the calendar. It's not just about presents at Christmas or chocolate at Easter. OK, so one child isn't convinced, which is sad for us to see.
Stephanie is 15. She believed in God until she returned to the school system by going into secondary school. Between peer pressure, lack of education in religion, political correctness and nanny-state mentality of dangerously high proportions and general ignorance about Christianity as a whole she no longer does. This is happening everywhere, not just my own doorstep. But perhaps one day she will believe again. Or perhaps she won't. That is her own road that she must travel.
So that is our story. So much for what we thought twenty years ago! Do you have your own story to tell? I'd love to hear it.
