Journal 1 - Where Am I Religiously?.
I like to think that religion is a wholly personal thing, and my experiences with it have confirmed my belief. My father was born Catholic and raised as a Jehovah's Witness. My mother was agnostic and didn't believe that she needed church to be religious. When she met my stepfather, they became born-again Christians. That was the only time I actually attended church regularly. I was given my first (B)ible at the age of nine by my Sunday school teacher and received Christ into my life shortly after that.
Although I had received Christ, I did not behave as a Christian. My family stopped attending church, but I continued attending Awanas on Wednesday nights, although I soon stopped attending that as well. Religiously, I was at a standstill. As I got older, I recognized a desire to have religion in my life, yet at the same time realized that I was too logical to totally accept and believe in anything religious. I found myself searching for answers that would disprove the theory of divinity that was Christianity. Looking back now, I realize that I lacked the conviction that I had longed for because I was too afraid to believe in an all-powerful deity.
This last summer, there came a turning point in my religious life. Shortly after high school graduation, I started dating a friend of mine who was a devout Southern Baptist. Soon, at his and his sister's encouragement, I began attending their youth group on Wednesday nights. Soon after, I started attending Sunday school and services. At this time, I had not been baptized, and this was something I decided I wanted to do. I discussed this with my youth pastor, and we agreed that it would be done. Two weeks before I was to be baptized, I petitioned for and was accepted into First Baptists Church. The next weekend, my youth group attended That Big Youth Thing at Carowinds, a Baptist gathering organized by the SC Baptist Convention.
