I grew up in what is often called a “Sunday Christian” home. My parents had great intentions of instilling Christian values into our lives, but often the values that we learned on Sunday morning didn't carry all the way through the week. It’s nothing like “ya we went to church and then came home and all my family does is smoke, and drink, and swear, etc, etc”. My parents are wonderful and raised my two brothers and I very well. None of us are living on the streets, doing drugs, and begging others for money. We were raised to work hard for our money, be responsible with what we have and live within our means, and be respectful to others amongst other key values. This being said though I did not have any sort of a relationship with God or Jesus. The basic knowledge that I did have about Christianity told me that the majority of Christians were hypocrites and that it was a show put on just for the public eye.
Then in 2006 my grandpa passed away from cancer and I was devastated. I felt abandoned and like God took him just to spite me. I was hurt and determined to rebel against any and all authority figures in any way possible. This was quite easy for me since I was leaving for university and had unlimited amounts of freedom. My first semester of school was spent in the “party scene”. I’m pretty sure my antics gave my dad most of the salt that’s now in his salt and pepper hair! Then at the end of my first semester I met a cute, curly haired guy that lived down the hall from my friend in residence. The three of us started going out for supper together at the food court and over time we learned that quiet, innocent Scott was a Christian and regularly went to church. He invited us to his church one Sunday and we decided to give it a chance. The music was decent and the pastor ironically preached on “Bringing your friends to church”. By this point I had a slight crush on Scott and so I continued to attend church with him every Sunday.
Soon I started to ask questions about his faith. I could see that he wasn't like the other “Christians” I had interacted with. His faith was genuine. He was committed to reading his Bible every day, he invested time in prayer, and attended church every Sunday, and not only that but his whole family did the same! That was 6 people that were genuine Christians. We started dating in December 2006 and his parents bought me a bible for Christmas. I began reading it daily and taking a list of questions to Scott almost every day about what I had read. It took me six months to logically sort through the Christian faith and test the Lord.
On May 11th, 2007, I prayed that the Lord would use my life as He saw fit and that I would be able to have a relationship with Jesus. My faith journey has had many ups and downs. After being told several times by the Lord through prayer and my Bible reading that I needed to be baptized, as a show of my faith, and ignoring or putting off every command, I felt the Lord go silent in my life. I drifted away in my readings and prayer but longed for that closeness of conversation again. It finally clicked that He stopped talking simply because I wasn't listening and so, in January 2010, I was baptized. The Lord began to speak to me again and my faith grew.
After Alice was born life became busy and my faith was put on the back burner. Though we still attended church every Sunday, I found myself making lists of things to do instead of worshiping the Lord and learning more about Him. Life was busy, prayer time was scarce, and my Bible read was non-existent. This continued until after I had Anna. Then I am convinced that the Lord stepped in and placed the Beachbody family into my life.
The Beachbody challenge group that I joined taught me to commit not only to a fitness program and healthier nutrition but also to personal development. I began praying daily again and setting aside time to actually study my Bible instead of my usual read it and forget it. I have grown closer to God and in my relationship with Jesus more since March 2014 then I have since the beginning of my faith walk. I am so thankful to be having conversations with God again, even when most of the things he tells me are things I don’t want to hear!!
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