Some people choose to blame themselves or other people, while others choose to blame a higher being. For people who believe and trust in their god, it is hard to understand why their God would let bad situations happen to them. Sometimes they question their god and often times give up on their god and their faith. When a person tells you that they have faith in you to accomplish a goal, they tend to be referring to the level of trust that they have in you that you will succeed in what you wish to accomplish. That is what I think having faith in god is, trust.

All throughout my adolescent years I was awoken bright and early on Sunday morning and told to put on my Sunday best. Then we would go to church and sit through an exactly hour long sermon, in which I usually could not comprehend. After church I would go to Sunday school and proceed to be confused with what I was being taught. When I was 7 years old and could more thoroughly understand the sermon I asked Jesus Christ into my heart. After I turned 12 years old we my families’ attendance at church steadily declined. My parents then sat my brother and I down and we had a conversation that really opened my eyes. My parents told my brother and I that just because we do not go to our church anymore does not mean that we don’t love or trust in the lord any less, and the reason we stopped going to our church as much was because of the mass amount of hypocrisy at our church. They began to tell us that this was not an excuse for not attending but they thought that the best option for us as a family is to just to talk about god and religion whenever we want. I have always been comfortable talking to my parents about god and religions.

Although my family and I are not directly members of a specific church, we are Southern Baptist Christians. We as Christians believe that Jesus Christ, the son of God, was sent to earth to teach the world to be righteous and follow the ten basic commandments. Also we believe that Jesus Christ was sent from god to die for everyone’s sins. We believe that as long as you ask the lord into your heart and pray for forgiveness for your sins then you will spend eternity in heaven. We have been taught the Ten Commandments that go as follows. The first is that you should not put anything before god. This includes literally everything. Second is to not make any false gods.The third commandment is you shall not use the lord’s name in vein. This includes in the heat of anger shouting the lord’s name in any other way than to glorify his name. Fourth is to keep the Sabbath day holy. This is when you are not supposed to do anything on Sunday, not work or even play. It is a day of rest. I have found that in this day and age we have absolutely gone away from this. Since money rules the world a lot of people can’t afford to take the day off. Also with all of the things to do in towns it is often times hard to stay at home. The fifth commandment is to honor your father and mother and do as they tell you. The sixth commandment teaches us not to murder. Seventh is to not commit adultery or not to cheat on your spouse or even to think about cheating on a spouse. The eighth Commandment says that we shouldn’t steal from our neighbor. Ninth is that we would not lie to anyone. And finally the last commandment is that we should not covet anything that belongs to our neighbor. This means not to lust after something that someone owns. Aside from these Ten Commandments we are also taught many other lessons like not to have premarital sex and to work hard and you will receive payment for your work. This may not be or monetary value nor immediate but your work will pay off sometime in your life.

I agree with most everything that I have ever learned in church, but there are a few lingering things that I don’t understand or agree with. For instance in the second Commandment it says that we are not to make any idols. But aren’t we in fact making idols when we place a carving of Jesus Christ hanging from the cross on the walls of our churches? I think this is very contradictory to the Commandment. Also in the last Commandment it says that we should not lust for something that belongs to another person. I disagree with this. Simply because if I see someone that has something that I think is cool or I want, this means I am going to work my hardest to get something just like it. I think this encourages work. Finally, I know this will sound inappropriate but, I do not agree with the way premarital sex is frowned upon. Because when I think of marriage I think of an everlasting bond between a man and a woman. This means that I should never want to have sexual relations with another woman right? I believe for a marriage to last and for both spouses to be happy, Good sex is the answer. So are you not supposed to be happy with the person you marry? I believe that it is a violation of God’s laws to not be happy in your marriage and get a divorce. I don’t believe that god would want us to be forever locked in a relationship where we are not really in love with the woman we have married. Also face it no one wants to go into a relationship without knowing whether or not our partner is good or not in bed. This way we can know if the person we love is really the person we should enter holy matrimony with or not. These are the biggest things I either don’t agree with or question with my religion.

Unlike some other religions I believe that we are more passive and more accepting of other religions. Although we do however try to get people to join our religion as well as teach people how to follow Jesus Christ and his teachings. We try and be involved with the public as much as possible in order to let people see how we act and present ourselves so that maybe they would want to join our religion because they like how we act. But also I think that we reach out to people as a voice of hope and optimism. For instance I know some religions try and teach that if you don’t preach to people every day and try to recruit for the religion then you will die and spend eternity in a fiery hell. Whereas I believe that Southern Baptist Christians tend to preach more optimism than anything else. That if you follow and live your life according to god that you can have the gift of everlasting life in paradise. Also I think that when people are going through tough times, the Christian religion give people hope and something to believe in or trust. I think this helps a lot when people don’t have much good to look at in their lives. I believe this is a much better recruiting tool than fire and brimstone preaching. Also I believe that being southerners we can be very hospitable and make people more comfortable in church. Because all too often church can either be uncomfortable or even a burden. So if people feel comfortable with their surroundings they are more likely to join the religion.

Being a member of the Christian Religion I think I am classified as religious. I think that being religious means that a person worships a God. When I think of someone being spiritual, I usually think of someone who worships earthly elements. But also when I think of someone being spiritual I think of someone who believes in the paranormal, like ghosts. I tend to think that when someone says that they are spiritual, it is an excuse for them not to have to say that they believe in one god. In times like these people are so enveloped with political correctness and trying their hardest not to offend anyone. By saying that they are spiritual they do not have to say what god or even any god they believe in. I also believe that sooner or later everyone becomes religious, whether it is on his or her death bed or if an accident happens, they will ask a god to help them. I think this is human nature.

Through out time there have always been religious wars. People fight each other simply because they do not follow or worship the same god. I believe that there will come a time just like in the past where two religions will go to war with one another and call it a holy war. They will fight until one religion has too little support to continue. I think that there will always be multiple opinions and as long as there are multiple opinions there will be multiple religions. Unless we, as a planet become too socialized and all of the world governments combine and create a world government and decide that the people would all be better off if there were only one religion. I don’t see religion or spirituality going anywhere for a long time.

However people cope with the cards they have been dealt is their prerogative. Some people choose to have a positive outlook on life and others choose to look at the worst aspects of life. I think that having faith and trusting that life will get better, is the way to go. In life we will travel over hills of happy times and travel through valleys of sorrow. It is up to the person to decide whether or not he or she wants to have an optimistic outlook on their journey called life.