Another in our occasional series about readers with a strong religious faith… we talk to Deborah, who is a Christian.
Deborah says:
My parents are both strong Christians and were always going to make sure I was christened and baptised. They attended a church which was part of a big community of churches called New Covenant; there were always joint services and lots of people, with fun days and child pantomimes as well as a weekly Sunday service.
In 2011 my parents decided to open up their own church, a branch of the community of churches we were a part of. Our branch is run by my family. My dad is the pastor, my mum handles announcements and beginning prayer, my brother is the computer man, my sister is the solo choirist and I play the keyboards! The church is still small as far as members go, but that's fine - it feels more like the House of God that way, anyway!
My schedule has a lot of my religion in it. Every weekday morning we all come together for Morning Devotion, a reading from a book of Bible quotes with messages for the day inside. We pray together for a good day. On Wednesdays we have Bible Study where we read a chapter of a book of the Bible and discuss it; my school does something similar on a Wednesday break time, so I go to that too! We sometimes have Youth events - in September we had Mega Praise where youth from all branches of the church came together to sing and there's a special choir I am a part of, too.
To me, faith is everything. God is someone I can go to when I feel alone; I always find refuge in Him. I get a warm, fuzzy feeling when I praise Him and sometimes I wish worship didn't always end so fast! Music is what really connects me to God, and I well and truly love Him - he's the reason I am who I am!
Cathy says:
Wow… it's great to read about such a strong faith! Are YOU a practising Christian? Or do you follow a different religion? COMMENT BELOW to tell us more! If you'd like to write about YOUR religion for DREAMCATCHER, email me via the 'email cathy' link on www.cathycassidy.com to let me know!
Deborah says:
My parents are both strong Christians and were always going to make sure I was christened and baptised. They attended a church which was part of a big community of churches called New Covenant; there were always joint services and lots of people, with fun days and child pantomimes as well as a weekly Sunday service.
In 2011 my parents decided to open up their own church, a branch of the community of churches we were a part of. Our branch is run by my family. My dad is the pastor, my mum handles announcements and beginning prayer, my brother is the computer man, my sister is the solo choirist and I play the keyboards! The church is still small as far as members go, but that's fine - it feels more like the House of God that way, anyway!
To me, faith is everything. God is someone I can go to when I feel alone; I always find refuge in Him. I get a warm, fuzzy feeling when I praise Him and sometimes I wish worship didn't always end so fast! Music is what really connects me to God, and I well and truly love Him - he's the reason I am who I am!
Cathy says:
Wow… it's great to read about such a strong faith! Are YOU a practising Christian? Or do you follow a different religion? COMMENT BELOW to tell us more! If you'd like to write about YOUR religion for DREAMCATCHER, email me via the 'email cathy' link on www.cathycassidy.com to let me know!
Shouldn't the word "he's" in Deborah's last sentence be capitalised seeing as you always have to capitalise God's pronouns? I'm not religious myself and I have had disagreements with Christians who use their faith as a reason to hate others which seems a bit weird because I thought faith would make people more chilled out and at peace with themselves but it only seems to cause war and conflict, especially as no one can agree on which god is the right one, if there is a god at all! But, yeah, I don't like it when people use faith as a bullying tactic. I think Brand New said it best with the line "You're beating with a book everyone that book taught you to love". Love thy neighbour - the Golden Rule, if I'm not very much mistaken. I also don't like the condescending nature some people seem to have towards non-religious people. I've experienced this recently as (aside from all the "You're going to hell, sinner!" that I get on pro-LGBT Facebook pages) my friend's Christian mother is attempting to cut me out of her daughter's life because I'm not Christian. And? Do we really need to be segregated based on faith? If so, I'd never see my mother because she's a lapsed Catholic and I've always been an atheist. People can believe what they want to believe but when it starts to trespass on other's lives, that's when they should maybe draw the line. Whether you believe in nothing, God, Allah, Buddha, Brahma et al or any deity you can think of, it really shouldn't be that hard to just be a decent, respectful person and let others get on with their lives.
ReplyDeleteJust to clarify, none of this is about Deborah, she's great. But you know what I'm like with my tangents! If I get talking, I'll never stop! Especially on a topic where there's so much to be said.
I follow a different religion, which is Islam. If you know about my religion, then you probably know that I wear a headscarf to school. The headscarves that my Mum and Dad buy from many shops are simply beautiful, with funky prints and excellent embroidery,
ReplyDeleteMy religon is Jew #believerofG-D
ReplyDelete