Spoon fed Baptist, Christian by choice?

                               

Jesus...Jesus...Jesus...God's beloved and only son...sent to live and walk the earth to spread the word of God and his infinite love for humanity. For some of us, to know him is to love him...and for others they may know him, but not accept his gift of salvation and may not love him.   But that is the choice God gave people...the right to choose for themselves.

                                                     

For me, I was raised as a child in the Baptist church and believing in God and Jesus was easy for me, because it's what I was taught to believe.  This seemed like an unfortunate advantage I had over so many people that were not given this opportunity to just have their religion placed in their lap and spoon fed to them their whole life since childhood...I mean how simple is that, right? 
As I grew older, I realized people aren't any better off because of having the advantage of being raised a certain way in the church, because they still have a mind and their right to choose and believe, and in some ways, this 'advantage' as I call it, can make truly believing in Christianity equally challenging as someone who did not have the advantage.
For me, I have struggled with this very thing for many years.  I have asked myself how do I know if this is what I want to believe?  I was told to think this way, but never given a choice.
So I decided to open my mind to other options or ideas.  At first, it seemed wrong to entertain these thoughts.  It seemed as if I was going against God.  But, I felt it was important to decide how I wanted to believe.
I did research and watched documentary shows on many different religions and beliefs.

I started with Scientology.

Scientology drew me in during my twenties because of the famous celebrity people in this organization.  I decided to look into this...maybe there was something here.  I spent many hours educating myself on this idea...and the more I researched it, the more I lost respect for people that bought into this idea because it was the most ridiculous load of crap I'd ever heard of...and I couldn't believe anyone in their right mind,  would believe these idiots that started this.  That was the end of that!

                                                         

So, then I stumbled upon Buddhism in my late twenties and thought I'd look into this.  It seemed really cool...I liked the meditation thing...I loved the musical chimes with the singing monks as they hummed melodies.  The Dalai Lama is so nice and kind, and so easy to like.  But the more I learned about this religion the more I felt it was a false God and not for me. 

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        www.mrdowling.com
2. Buddhism /ˈbudɪzəm/ is a nontheistic religion ^[note 1] or philosophy (Sanskrit: dharma; Pali: dhamma) that encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and spiritual practices largely based on teachings attributed to Gautama Buddha, commonly known as the Buddha ("the awakened one").
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5. A few years later, I decided to look into Catholics.  
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Once again, I was curious...maybe they had a hidden secret that I was unaware of from my childhood raising.  The more knowlege I obtained about this organization, the faster I ran back to my roots. 

                     

I have always thought people believe what they were taught to believe as children...and this may be so....but not if they're open minded enough to explore and look into other belief systems.  

My faith is no longer labeled with the Baptist label...because I am so open minded and exploratory with my ideas...I now call myself Christian...or also known as non-denominational.  My beliefs are God is the creator of this universe and Jesus is his only son sent to earth to live, walk, talk, teach us. 

I am not confined to other ideas, but I do stay within this basic belief and do not stray very far from this.  

I've had times of doubt from time to time, but when this happens, I pray and ask God to give me a seed of faith...because a mustard seed is all it takes to move a mountain.  God always gives me the seed, and I fill my mind with glorious thoughts and faith that is so strong that it could move a mountain.

King James Bible
And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.

I try to always have the 3 H's in my life.  

1. Happy

2. Healthy                    

3. Have faith in God.

Peace and love be with you all....

Tina