In the beginning...

I was raised in a Catholic family. We attended the early mass every Sunday morning and, afterwards, I would go to Sunday school. My Ma read my sister and I stories from a Children’s bible while we pretended to be hairstylists, combing and curling her hair. I attended vacation bible school and youth group at a church my Ma’s friend belonged to. I went to confession, completed my 1^st Communion and Confirmation rites and renewed my Baptismal vows while attending Baptisms of new family members.

Some might say, with this type of upbringing, that I was brainwashed into believing in God and Jesus. While I'm grateful to have had this exposure at an early age, I emphatically deny that I believe because of my upbringing.

I am a logical and analytical thinker. Let’s be honest, many things concerning God, Jesus and the bible are difficult to put in a logical context. I remember many times in my life, even as a young child, when I questioned the truth of it all. Every time I questioned it, even as a child, I always concluded that there was no other way for life and the world to exist without God. Even though my brain couldn’t and still can’t create a logical explanation for the existence of God, my heart knows, my soul knows, everything deep down inside of my being knows, that he exists and that his son sacrificed his life for the forgiveness of my sins.

That sense of knowing is something that cannot be conditioned through the influence of others. There are many non-believers who were raised just like me. There are many believers who grew up in households where they weren’t taught anything about God or Jesus.

I am grateful to have this foundational upbringing, to have been enlightened through the grace of God, and to have been chosen as one of God’s people.

Jeremiah 31:33

“But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”