So we had an awesome weekend at church with services Friday, Saturday and two on Sunday. We had a guest preacher which just happened to be our pastor's brother from Wisconsin. We are starting a month of prayer and fasting called "March Impact" hoping to see great things in the coming weeks and months. Everyone in the church (or at least the people who decide to do it) will be fasting from the same thing each week. I think this week we are fasting one meal, another week is meat and/or sweets for a day, another from some form of technology for a day and the last week we can't talk negative to other people. I understand that 99% of the people who read this blog don't agree or understand why we do things or why I decided to go to this church. Trust me...it's extremely difficult knowing that the people I love the most (family and friends) don't understand. But the point of this blog is to share something I discovered last night while praying...my unending faith. It's up to you if you want to continue reading, maybe I'm just typing to get my thoughts out.
First of all I owe my strong faith and love of God to my amazing parents. They had a difficult start to their marriage because of finances and having a cute little baby girl to take care of. Through it all they trusted God and kept their faith. I am so proud of how hard they worked to make sure my brother and I had everything we needed and that we went to church every Sunday. They are the ones who made sure I knew that drinking and drugs were not ok and to wait until marriage to have sex. I wanted to make them proud so I stayed away from all of those things. They made sure I chose my friends carefully, I remember a couple years where I didn't have the best of friends so I spent time at home where I knew I was loved, didn't bother me at all that I spent my weekends with my family. My parents and brother are great examples of God's love, always loving and quick to forgive. I am so blessed to have grown up in a home where this love was so strong and to have two parents who loved each other enough to stick together through it all. Ultimately my faith in God began at home.
As I got older I made friends who weren't into drinking and drugs, we could have so much fun staying away from those things. Then I met Brianna (yes my friend I need to mention you) I distinctly remember a trip to Kansas City with band I think and discovered that she had a Michael W. Smith CD! All of the years of people asking me who my favorite singer was, (I always named Michael W. Smith) and I finally found someone who not only knew who he was but had a CD! She so kindly let me listen to it and I think thats the point where I fell in love with worship music, since it was his first worship CD. I also think that was where I started paying more attention to the words in songs and relating to them and using them as prayers. It was so awesome to have an awesome friend who understood how important Jesus was and who wanted to live for him.
Then college came and I was forced to make new friends and I was determined to find Christian friends so I stepped out of my little shy bubble and went to Intervarsity Christian Fellowship which was another huge turning point in my walk with God because I attended Bible study every week and was exposed to ideas from people from several different churches. Seeing different perspectives on some important issues. It was great to have a group of Christian friends on a campus of strange faces where the majority of people were probably out drinking the night before. When I moved to Winona I was so blessed to live with such awesome roommates, I remember a night when Brianna had just got off the phone with Chris and she was sharing her concerns and hope for him to understand her faith. Kelsey, Brianna and I all prayed for him together that night what an amazing thing to live with great friends who are there to pray with you and help you through whatever comes. That year I also started going to Breathe, where I experienced some overwhelming feelings of how great our God really is, feelings that I had never felt before.
I'm gonna stop here for now, I have so much to say right now and I think this is getting obnoxiously long so I'll leave it at that for now. Thanks for making it to the bottom haha!
2 comments:
I remember that night too, praying for Chris, I remember feeling so loved and such a connection between you and Kels who were willing to pray for Chris with me. It's so awesome when other people can see the huge issuse at hand and realize it's so much bigger than we can deal with so we just have to take it to God. Chris was just telling me yesterday how touching it was to know so many people were praying for him. It's wonderful to have a friend like you know knows Jesus too (I didn't mean to rhyme) :) Love ya! PS: I saw your mom today @ Hallmark, haah.
I remember that night too- and all the discussions we have always had about faith (well- most of them- probably not ALL because we talked a lot- ha!) Anywho- we can all be thankful for our faith, no matter what denomination we are because Jesus doesn't care in the end. It just matters that we love him. I think the fasting this is really cool. I've done that a couple of times, and it does make a difference! Fasting is important because it makes you focus more on God instead of the other things.
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